
30Z 



I 302 
16 M6 

'"" ^ TED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION 

WHOLE NUMBER 542 



BUli£TlN. 1913. NO. 32 



AN EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF A 
SUBURBAN AND RURAL COUNTY 

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

By H. N. MORSE and E. FRED EASTMAN 

DEPARTMENT OF CHURCH AND COUNTRY UFE OF THE BOARD 

OFHOME MISSIONS OP THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 

tnd 

A. C. MONAHAN 

UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1913 



Monograph 



BULLETIK OP TH£ BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 

INoTE.— with the exceptions indicated, the documents named below will be sent free of charge upon 
applicaHon to the tk>inmIssIoner of Educatlofi, WaShfiigton, D. C. Tho^ marked with an asfcertsk (♦) 
are no longer available for free distribution, but may be had of the Superintendent of Documents, Gov- 
ernment Printing Office, "Washington, D. C, upon payment of the price stated. Documents marked 
with a dagger (t) are out of print. Titles are abridged. J 

1910. 

No. 1. Reform ia teaching religion in Saxony. Arley Barthlow Show. 

No. 2. fetAtd school fey^ms: Octobef 1, 1908, to October 1, 1909. E. C. filliott. 

fNo. 3. List of publications of the United States Bureau of Education, 1867-1910. 

No. 4. The biological etations oi Europe. Charles Atirood Kofoid. 

No. 5. American Bchoolhouses. fletcher B. Dresslar. 

*No. 6. Statistics of State universities, etc., 1909-10. 5 cts. 

1911. 

*No. 1. Bibliography of science teaching. 6 cts^ 

No. 2. Opportunities for graduate study in ^^culture. A. C. Monahan. 
*No. 3. Agencies for improvement of teachers in service. W. C. Kuediger. 15 cts. 
*No. 4. Report of the commission to study the public schools of Baltimore. 10 cts. 

No. 5. Age and grade census of schools and colleges. George Drayton Strayer. 

No. 6. Graduate work in mathematics in universities. 

No. 7. Undergraduate work in mathematics in colleges and universities. 

No. 8. Examinations in mathematics. 

No. 9. Mathematics in technological schools of collegiate grade. 
*No. 10. Bibliography of ediication for 1909-10. 15 cts. 
*No. 11. Bibliography of child study for the yeStrs 1908-9. 10 cts. 

No. 12. Training of teachers of elementary and secondary mathematics. 

No. 13. Mathematics in elemental^ schools. 

*No. 14. Provision for exceptional childr<en In the public schools. 10 cts. 
*No. 15. Educational system of China as recently reconstructed. H.E.King. lOcts. 

No. 16. Mathematics in public and private secondary schools. 
*No. 17. List of publications of the U. S. Bureau of Education, October, 1911. 5 cts. 

No. 18. Teachers' certificates (laws and regulations). Harlan Updegraff. 

No. 19. Statistics of State universities, etc., 1910-11. 

1912. 

*No. 1. Course of study for rural-school teachers. F.MutchlerandW. J. Craig. Sets. 

No. 2. Mathematics at West Point and Annapolis. 
*No. 3. Report of committee on imiform records and reports. 
*No. 4. Mathematics in technical secondary schools. 

No. 5. A study of expenses of city school systems. Harlan Updegraff. 
*No. 6. Agricultural education in secondary schools. 10 cts. 

No. 7. Educational status of nuraiag. M. Adelaide Nutting. 
*No. 8. Peace day. Fannie Fern Andrews. 5 cts. 

No. 9. Coxmtry schools for city boys. William Starr Myers. 
*No. 10. Bibliography of education in agriculture and home economics. 10 cts. 

No. 11. Current educational topics, No. I. 

No. 12. Dutch schools of New Netherland and colonial New York. W. H. Kilpatrick. 
*No. 13. Influences tending to improve the work of teacher of mathematics. 5 cts. 

No. 14. Report of the American commissioners on the teaching of mathematics. 

No. 15. Current educational topics, No. IL 

*No. 16. The reorganized school playground. Henry S. Curtis. 5 cts. 

(Continued on p. 3 of corer.) 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



5ULLETIN, 1913, NO. 32 PLATE 1 




A. SANDY SPRING HOME. 




B. SANDY SPRING HIGH SCHOOL. 



UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION 

BULLETIN, 1913, NO. 32 WHOLE NUMBER 542 



AN EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF A 
SUBURBAN AND RURAL COUNTY 

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

By H. N. MORSE and E. FRED EASTMAN 

DEPARTMENT OF CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE OF THE BOARD 
OF HOME MISSIONS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 

and 

A. C. MONAHAN 

UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1913 



0^ 



2-- 






D. OF D. 
SEP 20 1913 



f? 









CONTENTS. 



Letter of transmittal 5 

Introduction 7 

Location and topography 7 

Chapter I. Economic, Social, and Religious Conditions. 

I. Economic conditions 9 

II. Cooperative tendencies in farming 12 

III. Land development for suburban purposes 13 

IV. Transportation and markets 13 

V. Population 13 

VI. Social mind 14 

VII. Recreations 16 

VIII . The Sandy Spring neighborhood 17 

IX. Religious conditions and activities 19 

Chapter II. Educational Conditions. 

I. General features 23 

II. Schools for white children 24 

III . Schools for colored children 40 

IV. The school budget 46 

V. Private educational institutions 49 

Chapter III. Patrons of the Public Schools 51 

Chapter IV. Summary and Recommendations 58 

Appendix 63 

3 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page. 

Plate lA. A Sandy Spring home Frontispiece. 

IB. A Sandy Spring home and the high school Frontispiece. 

2A. Episcopal church at Laytonville 20 

2B. Colored church at Rockville 20 

3A. The Laytonville school 28 

3B. The Clarksburg school •. 28 

4A. Colored school, lodge hall, and church, Norbeck 40 

4B. Norbeck colored school 40 

5A and B . Typical colored schools 40 

6A. The Gaithersburg high school 48 

6B. The Poolesville consolidated school 48 

7A. The Rockville academy 48 

7B. Domestic science building, Brookeville high school 48 

Figure 1. Location of churches 20 

2. Location of schools 25 

3. Proportion of one-teacher schools 27 

4. Enrollment by grades in the schools for white children 32 

5. Enrollment in public schools 35 

6. Average attendance ■ 35 

7. Proportion of one-teacher schools among the colored 41 

8. Enrollment by grades in the schools for colored children 43 

4 



LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



Department of the Interior, 

Bureau of Education, 
Washington, June 23, 1913. 

Sir: There is great need of accurate information in regard to edu- 
cational conditions in rural communities throughout the country. 
The ordmary statistics of rural schools and other agencies of educa- 
tion and their results give only averages and fail to teU the truth 
about any particular agency or result. Much good would come 
from a complete educational survey of the United States, and such a 
survey should be made. But it would cost many thousands of 
dollars and is far beyond the resources of this bureau. The best the 
bureau can now do is to make surveys of a few typical counties, dis- 
tricts, and townships, in cooperation with local school officers and 
such other agencies as are available. The results of these wiU have 
general value, because they reveal real conditions in typical com- 
munities. 

The accompanying manuscript gives results of an educational 
survey of Montgomery County, Md. This county adjoins the Dis- 
trict of Columbia and contains some of the new suburbs of Washing- 
ton City. Otherwise it is a ty])ical agricultural county of this 
section. This survey is a part of a larger undertakmg — a general 
sociological survey, including a study of economic, social, and 
religious activities and conditions — made by the department of 
church and country life of the board of home missions of the Pres- 
byterian Church in the United States of America. AU the more 
important results of the survey, except those relatmg to education, 
I have been published by the board in a bulletm entitled *A Rural 
Survey in Maryland." 

In the educational survey the investigators of the board were 
assisted by the 'division of rural education of this bureau. The 
investigators visited most of the schools of the county, and then 
supplemented their first-hand information from the records of the 
county board of education, the county commissioner, and from 
written reports and conversations of teachers and parents. The 
material was prepared for publication by H. N. Morse, one of the 
board's mvestigators, and Mr. A. C. Monahan, of this bureau. A 
brief summary of the economic, social, and religious conditions has 

5 



Q iETTEK OF TRANSMITTAL. 

been included, because of their intimate relation to education. An 
account of the methods of the survey is mcluded because of the 
suggestions it offers for those who may wish to conduct local surveys 
elsewhere. 

I recommend that the manuscript be published as a bulletin of the 

Bureau of Education. 

Respectfully submitted. _ ^ ^ 

^ P. P. Claxton, 

Commissioner. 
The Secretary of the Interior. 



H 



AN EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF A SUBURBAN AND 
RURAL COUNTY-MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 



INTRODUCTION. 

In September, 1911, the Montgomery County Country Life Com- 
mittee was organized, witli a membersliip of 53 men and women, 
residents of the county, who were interested in the problems of rural 
life. The first work of the committee, without which no other could 
well be undertaken, was to determine the exact status of affairs in the 
county. Its first official act was to decide upon a sociological survey, 
in order that there might be obtained, as a scientific basis for future 
work of improvement, accurate information concerning the prevailmg 
economic, social, educational, and religious conditions. The depart- 
ment of church and countiy life of the board of home missions of the 
Presbyterian Church in the United States of America was invited to 
make the survey. Two field investigators of said department, 
E. Fred Eastman and H. N. Morse, were subsequently detailed for 
this work, which was begun in January, 1912, and finished in April 
of the same year. 

The survey as finally completed dealt with eight main topics, viz, 
topography and location, economic conditions, population, social 
mind, recreation and morals, education, religious conditions and 
activities, and social welfare. The department making the survey 
has issued a bulletin including the principal material gathered. How- 
ever, the educational conditions are discussed only briefly. The 
present report is intended to supplement the other, giving a fuU 
account of the educational conditions and a very brief resume of the 
material collected on other topics. 

LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY. 

Montgomery County, Md., lies along the north bank of the Potomac 
River from the District of Columbia to the Monocacy Eiver. The 
adjoining Maiyland counties are Frederick, Howard, and Prince 
Georges. The District of Columbia and Loudoun and Faii'fax Coun- 
ties, Va., form the remainder of its boundary line. Its area is 521 
square miles. 

Tlie county is divided into 13 minor civil divisions, called "election 
districts." These are, in the order of their numerical sequence, Lay- 
tonsville, Clarksburg, Poolesville, Rockville, ColesviUe, Darnestown, 

7 



8 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

Bethesda, Olney, Gaithersburg, Potomac, Barnesville, Damascus, and 
Wheaton. The town of Rockville, in the Rock^olle district, is the 
county seat. 

In general the land is high, and its surface is rolling, in some sections 
quite hilly. The average height above mean sea level for the whole 
county is approximately 431.5 feet, the highest point being in the 
Damascus district, 822 feet. The centers of population are almost 
without exception the highest points in their respective neighbor- 
hoods, the towns being for the most part so situated that the land 
slopes off in every direction. The county has much picturesque 
scenery. Not alone from such special features as the Great Falls of 
the Potomac and the Cabin John Bridge, one of the longest single- 
span stone bridges in the world, but from the general contour of the 
land, rolling, partially wooded, and capably farmed by an intelHgent 
people, is its beauty derived. 



Chapter I. 

ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS. 

I. GENERAL ECONOMIC CONDITIONS. 

Montgomery County is and always has been primarily an agri- 
cultural county. At the present time a portion of it is passing 
through a period of economic transition, which is making it less and 
less dependent upon agi-iculture ; but, for at least two-thirds of the 
total area, it will doubtless continue indefinitely to be true that its 
prosperity depends upon the success of its farming operations. 

Its agricultural history is similar to that of many farming com- 
munities in the eastern States. It is a history of rich land and 
abundant crops, exhausting cultivation, ultimate soil depletion, and 
a long period of slowly and painfully winning the land back to fer- 
tility. More than a century of unremitting culture of the staple 
crops of tobacco and corn sapped the strength from the soil until it 
became practically useless for farming purposes. In consequence, 
during the early years of the nineteenth century, a tide of emigration 
flowed steadily from the county toward the newer lands of the West. 
In four decades its population showed a net decrease of over 14 per 
cent. Land values dropped very low. About 1835, in the neigh- 
borhood of Sandy Spring, experiments were begun with various forms 
of chemical fertilizers — lime, Peruvian guano, and bone dust. The 
improvement in the yield was immediate and pronounced, and the 
use of these and other fertilizers soon became quite general. Under 
the influence of fertilization, aided by a gradual change to rotative 
cropping, the fertility of the soil was restored. The population 
increased, and during the next four decades made a net gain of about 
55 per cent. 

Economic resources. — The mineral resources are chiefly two, gold 
and building stone; each is important, but neither is important 
enough ever to displace farming as the great means of wealth pro- 
duction in the county. There are two gold mines near the Great 
Falls which have been worked intermittently since 1887. From 
$40,000 to $50,000 worth of gold is said to have been taken from them 
to date. Marketable stone, suitable for building purposes or for road 
building, is found in at least five districts, and several quarries have 
been opened. 

For the county as a whole the soil is chiefly adapted to the raising 
.of corn, wheat, and forage crops. In certain districts these staples 

9 



10 EDUCATIONAL SUE\^Y OF MONTGOMEEY COUNTY, MD. 

are supplemented by oats, rye, tobacco, potatoes, garden vegetables, 
small fruits, and apples. 

The farming assets. — The total land area of the county is approxi- 
mately 333,440 acres; 273,270 acres, or 82 per cent of the total, are in 
farms; 209,153 acres, 76.5 per cent of the farm land, are improved. 
Of the remaining 64,117 acres, 59,409 acres are in woodland, leaving 
only 4,708 acres neither wooded nor improved. The total value of 
all farm property is about $21,000,000, an increase of over 38 per 
cent in 10 years. The following table from the 1910 United States 
Census shows how this value is distributed : 

Land in 1910 $12, 678, 278 

In 1900 9, 491, 930 

Buildings in 1910 5, 163, 580 

In 1900 3, 525, 170 

Implements and machinery in 1910 733, 843 

In 1900 576, 010 

Domestic animals, poultry, etc. , in 1910 2, 282, 768 

In 1900 1, 486, 558 

Per cent of value of all property in — ' 

Land 60. 8 

Buildings 24. 8 

Implements and machinery 3.5 

Domestic animals, poultry, etc 10. 9 

Average values (number of all farms, 2,442) : 

All property per farm $8, 542 

Land and buildings per farm 7, 306 

Equipment and stock 1, 236 

Tlie Census Office estimated the average value of land per acre for 
the total farming area of the county as $46.39, as against $33.48 in 
1900, an increase of 38.3 per cent. 

There are in all 2,442 farms in the county, of which 2,093, or 85.7 
per cent, are operated by white farmers, and 349, or 14.3 per cent, 
are operated by colored farmers. At present the average size for all 
farms is about 112 acres, but the tendency is toward smaller farms; 
39 per cent of all farms have less than 50 acres each. The farms 
operated by negroes are smaller on the average than those operated 
by the whites; 69.3 p«r cent of all colored farmers have 19 acres or 
less. 

A study of the kind of tenure reveals some significant facts. Three- 
fourths of all farms are operated by those who own the land in whole 
or in part. The jjroportion of owners among the colored farmers is 
larger than among the white. For the whole county, there has been 
a slight increase in the amount of tenancy during 10 years; in at 
least two districts — Laytonsville and Potomac — this increase has 
been considerable, and has meant a poorer grade of farming, less 
profitable farming, and the gradual depreciation of the soil. On the 



ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND EELIGIOUS CONDITIONS. 11 

face of the returns, the per cent of farms operated by owners, 75.4 
per cent, seems like a fail' proportion. These farms, however, rep- 
resent only 55 per cent of the total acreage of farm lands. A higher 
proportion of the large farms are subject to absentee landlordism 
than of the small farms. Of the farms of 19 acres or less, 88.6 per 
cent are operated by owners; of those of 20 to 99 acres, 74.5 per cent 
are so operated; of those of 100 to 259 acres, 60.3 per cent; of those 
of more than 259 acres, 51.8 per cent. The points involved in these 
figures which should cause concern are these : Forty-five per cent, of 
all farm land is operated under a tenant system, which means poorer 
farming and the gradual impoverishment of the soil; 25 per cent of 
the entire farming population is shifting and constitutes an unstable 
element in the community, with an average period of tenure of only 
4 years as against 15 years for farm owners, a fact which must inevit- 
ably hamper all efforts toward the betterment of rural life conditions 
along social, religious, and educational lines. 

Jlie output of the farms. — The 1910 census gives the following table 
of the acreage and yield of the principal crops for the year 1909: 



Crops. 



Com 

Oats 

Wheat 

Rye 

Potatoes 

Tobacco 

Hay and forage . 



39,278 
1,169 

45,112 

3,549 

2,398 

687 

25,906 



Yield. 



1,380,249 bushels. 

22, 276 bushels. 
769,289 bushels. 

40,661 bushels. 
193, 783 bushels. 
534,314 pounds. 

30,094 tons. 



In two-thirds of the county stock feeding is an important source 
of mcome. Laytonsville, Gaithersburg, and Olney districts lead in 
this respect. Stock breeding is not carried on extensively any- 
where in the county except to replenish the string of draft horses or 
keep up the dairy herds. In the eastern and southern end of the 
county and along the entu*e length of the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- 
road, dairying is an important industry. There are at present from 
10,000 to 12,000 dairy cows in the county. 

Much of the county is well adapted to raising fruits, particularly 
apples. Within a few years many young orchards have been set out, 
particularly in the vicinity of Sandy Spring. This is stUl for the most 
part an industry of the future, but it will doubtless become increas- 
ingly important. Along the line of the railroad and in all sections 
which have ready access to the District of Columbia there is a great 
deal of market gardening for the Washington City market. Here 
eggs also are an unportant product. 

Farm labor. — Most of the farm labor in the county is colored. The 
wage for day labor varies from 75 cents and board to $1.50, the aver- 



12 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

age being about $1. Labor by the month costs from $12, with house 
and allowance, to $30, the average being about $18. In general it 
is difficult to obtain sufficient help of any sort, and good labor is 
particularly scarce. The laborers have apparently very sHght chance 
of economic advancement; very few are reported to have acquired 
farms anywhere in the county during the past 10 years. 

n. COOPERATIVE TENDENCIES IN FARMING. 

The farmers of the county have taken the first steps toward form- 
ing cooperative organizations. The Tobacco Growers' Association, 
which includes the tobacco growers of Frederick, Howard, Carroll, 
and ]\Iontgomery Counties, was organized seven years ago. Its work 
has been largely educational: The encouragement of better methods 
for the production and care of tobacco, the advocation of honest 
packing, the investigation of market conditions, and the recommen- 
dation to its members of some reliable firm to handle their output. 
Since its organization the crop yield has almost doubled, through the 
improved methods of cultivation, and the price has been increased 
about one-thu'd by gaining the confidence of the buyers in the qual- 
ity of the tobacco and the fau^ness of its packmg. 

The Milk Producers' Association of Maryland, Virginia, and the 
District of Columbia represents about 20,000 daiiy cows, of which at 
least two-fifths are in Montgomery County. Its work is to secure 
better legislation, encourage improved methods of handling the 
herds, and, in general, to better the conditions under which dauymen 
work. No effort has been made to fix prices or sell the milk through 
an agent. 

The Sandy Spring Fruit Growers' Association was recently formed 
with 26 members, representing about 15,000 trees, mostly in young 
orchards. For the present its work is educational. 

The grange, outside of the Sandy Spring neighborhood, has not 3"et 
gained a very strong hold upon the farmers of the county. There 
are but three branches in the county, two of which are in the Olney 
district. It has, through its executive committee, undertaken to do 
a considerable amount of cooperative buying, chiefly of farm imple- 
ments, home furnishings, and fertilizer. 

There is an annual farmers' convention held at Sandy Spring, 
which for 40 years has been bringing together a limited number of the 
farmers of the county for the open discussion of all the problems of 
farm operation and community life. These gatherings are more rep- 
resentative of Sandy Spring than of the entire county, but they have 
come to have considerable importance for those who attend them. 

The County Fair Association has an open membership of over 2,000. 
It owns large fair grounds at Rockville and holds an annvial fair in 
September of every year. 



ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND EELIGIOUS CONDITIONS. 13 

ni. LAND DEVELOPMENT FOR SUBURBAN PURPOSES. 

In the lower end of Montgomery County, where it adjoins the 
District of Cokimbia, the conditions are almost ideal for suburban 
development. Development has already taken place to a con- 
siderable extent, chiefly m the Wheaton and Bethesda districts. 
In Wheaton about one-half of the arable land is still farmed, but 
in Bethesda pi'actically all of the land that has not already been 
subdivided has either been bought up and is held awaiting develop- 
ment, or is valued at so high a figure that farming is no longer 
profitable. 

IV. TRANSPORTATION AND MARKETS. 

The transportation mediums which are important in this county 
are the Metropolitan and Southern Metropolitan branches of the 
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, the 
trolley lines, and the roads. 

The Metropolitan branch passes through five districts and is 
more or less conveniently available to practically two-thirds of the 
county. The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal parallels the Potomac River 
on the Montgomery County side for the entire length of the coimty 
line. The trolley lines and the Southern Metropolitan branch of 
the Baltimore & Ohio are of value chiefly to the suburbanites and 
the farmers in the southern end of the county. The total number 
of miles of road in the county is 830; 99 miles of this total is stone 
road of varying degrees of excellence; 24 miles of the stone road is a 
part of an old toll-road system. The rest of the stone road is State 
and county built, is relatively new, and for the most part in good 
condition. 

In general, it may be said that the market for Montgomery County 
is the city of Washington, which affords ample and accessible market 
for all of its products, except the tobacco crop, which is all shipped 
to Baltimore. 

V. POPULATION. 

The total population of the county is given by the last census as 
32,089, an increase for the decade of 1900-1910 of 5.4 per cent. 
Of this population, 84.6 per cent live in the open country; 8.1 per 
cent live in villages of from 100 to 750 inhabitants; 7.33 per cent 
live in towns of more than 750 inhabitants. For the county as a 
whole, the open-country population is decreasing, while the village 
and town population is increasing. Of the population, 28.8 per 
cent is colored. The figures for the county are, white, 22,847; 
colored, 9,235; other nonwhites, 7. Probably 75 per cent of the 
colored population is found either in settlements or villages through 



14 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

the county or in colored sections of the larger iowns. Olney dis- 
trict has a larger proportion than any other one district. 

Total population 32, 089 

Per cent living in open country 84. 6 

In villages of from 100 to 750 inhabitants 8. 1 

In villages of more than 750 inhabitants 7.3 

WTiite population per cent.. 71.2 

Negro population do 28. 8 

VI. SOCIAL MIND. 

Means of transportation and communication. — The problem of 
rural isolation, important from many points of view, is funda- 
mentally related to the problem of developing the social life of the 
community. Adequate means of communication are of the same 
primary significance socially that adequate means of transportation 
are economically. In general, this isolation is beginning to be 
broken down by the development of means of communication, which 
not only bring the communities closer together, but unite them more 
closely with the outside world, bringing them in touch with many 
forces and influences making for progress, and bestowing upon them 
many by-products of city civilization in the way of culture, education, 
comfort, and efficiency. 

First are mentioned again the railroad and the trolley lines. Six 
trolley lines enter the county from the south, one running as far as 
Rockville, and the others connecting the various towns m the 
Bethesda and Wheaton districts with the District of Columbia. 
There are also two stage lines, one of which connects Poolesville with 
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Barnesville Station, while the 
other connects Ashton with the Baltimore &, Ohio at Laurel. 

It is difficult to overestimate the social significance of good roads. 
It is not the social needs of the community which build the roads, 
but its economic needs. But once they are built, they must inevitably 
extend the lunits of the community by increasing the distance which 
it is possible comfortably to travel for social intercourse and for 
attendance upon public gatherings, churcltes, and schools. They 
must also increase the solidarity of the community and strengthen its 
social bonds by facilitating intercommunication. In Montgomery 
County it will be found that the development of the social life has 
followed very closely the development of the system of good roads. 

The advent of the rural free delivery and of the telephone has 
also been of great social value ; 38 rural delivery routes start either 
within the county or from towns adjacent thereto, reaching prac- 
tically all the farmers not conveniently served by the local post 
offices. ITiero are approximately 1,250 telephones in the county; 
probably 35 per cent of the homes of white farmers are equipped 
with them. 



ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS. 15 

Social welfare. — The vitality of the white population of the county 
is in general very high. The vitality of the colored population is 
relatively low. There is a county health officer who has general 
oversight over the public health for the entire county, except the 
Olney district and the town of Takoma Park. The Olney district 
has its local board of health, chartered by the State legislature. 
Health conditions in the town of Takoma Park are under the super- 
vision of the health department of the District of Columbia. 

The birth rate in 1912 for the white population of the county was 
14.8 per 1,000 mhabitants. For the colored population, it was 15.3 
per 1,000. The death rate was 7.8 for whites and 14.5 for the 
negroes. This birth rate is rather low, but the death rate is also 
low. It is significant that the death rate of the negroes is almost 
double that of the whites, while the birth rate is only slightly higher. 

There are four large well-equipped sanitariums in the county; one 
of these is devoted to the open-air treatment of all forms of tuber- 
culosis ; a second is given over to the treatment of nervous and mental 
diseases; the other two are general in their scope. There are 42 
physicians practicing within the county. 

The average age of marriage among the white population is 25.7 
years for the men and 21.6 years for the women. For the colored 
population the ages are respectively 28.5 and 22.2 years. These 
averages, as compared with the averages in most agricultural com- 
munities, are high. 

The housmg conditions in the county would compare very favorably 
with those in any other county similarly situated. The homes of the 
farm owners average 7 or 8 rooms; 95 per cent of the homes are 
painted. A large proportion of them are either two or three stories. 
A fair number are supplied with running water by windmill, ram, or 
engine. Sanitary conditions are usually excellent. 

The homes of the farm tenants are on the average not so good. 
Probably not more than 50 per cent of them are painted. The 
homes of the colored farmers are well above the average for colored 
farmers in other sections of the country. 

Organizations. — There are 29 local branches of secret organiza- 
tions, representing 9 orders. These are located in 12 districts, every 
district but Barnesville having at least one. The aggregate member- 
ship is 1,744; the attendance at the meetings of the societies is about 
15 per cent of the membership. The social importance of these 
organizations is not usually very great. 

There are 40 open fraternal organizations havmg a total member- 
ship of about 1,000. This total excludes the societies of the Sandy 
Spring neighborhood, and also certain organizations which are of 
more than local importance. These will be discussed in subsequent 
paragraphs. It also excludes three country clubs in the Bethesda 



16 EDUCATIONAL SUKVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

district with a membership of 1,938, which draw their patronage 
largely from without the county. 

The 40 clubs mentioned include farmers' clubs, improvement asso- 
ciations, card, social, literary, temperance, scientific, and athletic 
societies. Four districts — Clarksburg, Potomac, Barnesville, and 
Damascus — are apparently without organizations of this sort. 

The social organization of the county is highly uneven, both as 
regards the geographical distribution of these societies and the classes 
in the communities which they reach. Fifty-seven per cent of the 
existing organizations are in the suburban sections. All of the scien- 
tific clubs and the citizens' improvement associations are there. The 
best-organized localities are in general those with the best transpor- 
tation facilities, the best roads, and the most compact social groups. 

Only a small proportion of the population is in any instance pro- 
vided for by those organizations. There are none of any sort for the 
labormg and tenant classes. The existing societies are those of the 
farm owner and the town dweller. 

There are a great number of negro clubs and associations in the 
county. Many of these are prosperous benevolent societies, which 
care for their members when sick, bury the dead, and look after their 
families. The social significance of many of these clubs for the life 
of their members is without doubt very great, but they are too 
numerous for detailed examinations of them to be made. 

Vn. RECREATIONS. 

Types of recreations. — Baseball is played generally throughout the 
county. The larger schools have organized teams, and there were 
last season 8 organized town teams playing one game each per week. 
These games were usually attended by a crowd of 100 or more. In all 
districts there is more or less unorganized scrub playing. Basket- 
ball is played in several of the schools and there are two town teams. 
Football and soccer are played to a limited extent. Track work is 
popular in some sections. Several of the schools occasionally enter 
teams in State meets. An annual meet is held during the summer 
at Washington Grove, which has come to be an important event, 
attracting athletes from all neighboring States. Tennis is popular 
in at least six districts. Tournaments are often held, both for par- 
ticular sections and for the county. 

There is very little commercial drama at any time in the county, 
hardly more than one or two inexpressibly poor shows a year. Enter- 
tainment is provided by one moving-picture theater in Rockville. 
Home-talent plays and minstrel shows are, however, very popular, 
and are generally well supported. 

There are not many public dances held anywhere in the county, 
but there are very many private, semi-invitation dances during the 



ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS. 17 

winter in almost every district. These are held in town, lodge, and 
grange halls, in clubhouses, and in private homes. 

Outside of the Washington Grove Summer Chautauqua and some 
of the towns in the Wheaton district, lectures and public entertain- 
ments by outside talent are not much in. vogue anywhere in the 
county. There are more oyster suppers, strawberry festivals, and 
lawn parties than any other form of entertainment. Practically 
every organization in the county which requires money gives them. 
For the support of the churches and lodges, the strawberry and the 
oyster may be termed the first aids to the budget. There are also 
probably 30 or 40 lodge and church fairs held during the year and 
twice that number of public picnics. The picnics are especially 
popular, and are almost everywhere an important factor in the social 
life of the community. Many features are combined with them, such 
as athletics, dancing, sales, and sometimes raffles and similar money- 
malving devices. 

Washington Grove, in the Gaithersburg district, is the only strictly 
summer resort in the county. Among its annual features are a 
Chautauqua program of 12 lectures, concerts, and entertainments, 
an athletic carnival, and a 10-day camp meeting. There is a large 
amusement park at Glen Echo in the Bethesda district. Cabin John 
and Chevy Chase Lake are popular resorts during the summer. These 
last draw much of their patronage from Wasliington. 

Agencies furnishing recreation facilities. — Under this head it must 
be noted that there is apparently no organization in the county which 
feels impelled to furnish recreative facilities out of any sense of its 
obligations to the community. It is not a desire for service, but the 
need for money, that pushes the church and lodge into this field. 
The fact that they do perform a public service in furnishing recreation 
is quite incidental to the fact that they find it a convenient way to 
raise funds and, hence, as a regular pohcy, exploit recreation for the 
sake of their treasuries. Such faciUties as do not owe their existence 
to this circumstance are the result of the efforts of individuals or 
groups organized for that purpose, such as card clubs, athletic asso- 
ciations, etc. The result of this must be that those who, because of 
economic disability, lack of personal initiative due to the conditions 
of their life, or some other cause, can not provide their own recreation 
facilities are left without them. These, too, are the classes upon 
which the church and the lodge have the slightest hold, and are, 
generally speaking, the classes most in need of their ministrations in 
this regard. 

Vm. THE SANDY SPRING NEIGHBORHOOD. 

The territory included in the "Sandy Spring neighborhood" lies 
partly within the Olney and partly within the Coiesville districts. 
96359°— 13 2 



18 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMEKY COUNTY, MD. 

The term "neighborhood" is used advisedly. Sandy Spring is not 
a town or village or civil division of any sort. It is 10 miles from any 
town or railroad. It is nothing more nor less than a section of open 
farming country settled by a group of people who are united by the 
bonds of religion and blood kinship and contrasted more or less 
sharply mth the people of the adjoining territory by differences of 
thought, feeling, and custom. The first settlement was made by 
the Society of Friends early in the eighteenth century, and the com- 
munity has always been largely under their influence. The Friends' 
Meeting, which smce its organization has been the mainspring of the 
life of this community, has had a recorded existence since 1753. 

Many points in the history of this neighborhood are interesting and 
significant. Before the opening of the Revolutionaiy War, "The 
testimony against slavery" was taken up, and the beginning was 
made of committing this people to the policy of free labor owning 
the soil. 

Shortly after 1830, prohibition was voted for the district surround- 
ing the meetinghouse, and it was the influence of this settlement, 
working through the subsequent period of 50 years, which ultimately 
extended prohibition throughout the county. 

Many institutions of great social and economic importance which 
stni enjoy a flourishing existence had their beginnings in the second 
and third quarters of the nineteenth century. In 1844 a library 
company was organized, and a Mbrary was established at Sandy 
Spring. In 1844 the first farmers' club for men and in 1857 the first 
club for women were organized. 

The organization of a lyceum stock company in 1858 gave rise to 
one of the most interesting customs of the neighborhood. As a 
means of encouragmg attendance at the annual stockholders' meeting 
of this company, a neighborhood annahst was appointed who should 
keep a record of all community happenings and read it at the annual 
meeting. This practice is still continued. At the close of every 
12-year period the annals are published in book form. 

The Mutual Fire Insurance Co., the Savings Institution, the Grange, 
and Annual Convention of Farmers' Clubs, the Suffrage Association, 
and many other pubhc enterprises were inaugurated in the third 
quarter of the century. 

In many respects the criticisms which are often directed against 
agricultural communities are without force here. This is true, for 
example, as regards social organizations. Here, as elsewhere, 
societies have come and gone, but more often they have come than 
gone. There are at least 6 societies in existence now which are 
40 years old or more; 19 societies now enjoying vigorous health may 
be enumerated. These include 10 agricultural societies of various 
sorts, a book club, a literary society, a benevolent aid society, a 
suffrage association, and various others. 



ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND EELIGIOUS CONDITIONS. 19 

The place occupied by the agricultural societies is very important, 
as they have been to a large extent responsible for the introduction 
of the improved methods of agriculture which prevail here and for 
raismg farm life to its present high plane. 

The social significance of all of these societies is great. Even if 
the community had no other opportunity for recreation than that 
furnished by its clubs, it would yet be better provided for than the 
average rural commimity. 

The activities of the clubs do not, however, begm to exhaust the 
list of the amusements of this neighborhood. Every season has its 
lectures and its concerts, at least two or three of each, and a dozen 
or more home-talent plays and school entertainments of various 
sorts. There are at least 8 or IQ dances in the neighborhood each 
winter. In addition, there are all the various out-door activities of 
a well-organized community — -temiis, baseball, basket ball, private 
picnics and outings, and similar functions. 

IX. RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS AND ACTIVITIES. 

Distribution. — There are in Montgomery County 135 churches in 
various conditions of health and activity. Of this number, 95 are 
white churches and 40 are colored. It is more convenient to consider 
these groups separately, treating the white churches first. 

If the churches were evenly distributed, there would be one white 
church to every 5J square miles and to every 241 of the white popu- 
lation, a ratio which would provide more than adequate church 
facilities for the entire county. Their distribution has not this 
uniformity, but, as a matter of fact, there is no point in the county 
more than 5 miles distant from some church. The tendency in 
locating the churches has, however, been to anticipate the movement 
of the people out of the country into the town, by placing the churches 
at the centers of population. Nearly 85 per cent of the population live 
in the country, but the country claims only 55 per cent of the churches. 
Many of the town churches must rely for support upon the country 
and many people of the country must look to the towns for their 
church life. 

Denominational classification and growth. — Eighty-six of the white 
churches are Protestant and 9 are Roman Catholic. The Protestant 
churches represent 15 different denominations. The bulk of their 
strength is divided between 5 denominations; 9 denominations have, 
each, 3 churches or less. The total membership of all churches is 
9,701, of which 6,994 are Protestant and 2,707 Catholic. 

Of the total white population, approximately 20,000 may be termed 
Protestant, or, at least, non-Catholic. Every Protestant church 
has, on an average, r. t>ossible membership of 234. Just how well 
this field has been cultivated may be inferred from the fact that the 



20 



EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 



average membership of all churches is only 81 ; harclly 35 per cent of 
the population are in the churches. 

Of the 86 Protestant churches mentioned, 62 are growing, 3 are 
barely holding their own, 16 are losmg ground more or less rapidly, 5 
are practically on their deathbeds. Ten other churches not included 
in this total have passed away within recent years and must be 
numbered with the departed. 

Worlcing force. — There are 44 nunisters working regularly in the 
county, of whom 39 are Protestant and 5 are Koman Catholic. 




4i IVM/TC CHt//fC^ 
^ COi-OfSO CH(J/fC» 



Fig. 1. — Location of churches. 

Three churches — Hicksite and Orthodox, Friends and Christian 
Science — do not have regularly employed ministers; 8 other churches 
are at present pastorless. The 39 Protestant ministers are in charge 
of 75 churches. 

In the distribution of this force we see the remnants of that old 
system of farming out churches on circuits which has always con- 
stituted the great weakness of the country church. 

Of the 39 Protestant ministers, 15 have 1 church each; 13 have 2 
churches each; 3 have 3 churches each; 7ha\. i churches each; 1 has 
5 churches. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



3ULLETIN, 1913, NO. 32 PLATE 2 




A. EPISCOPAL CHURCH AT LAYTONVILLE. 




B. COLORED CHURCH AT ROCKVILLE. 



ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS. 21 

Of the churches over which these men have charge 49 are without 
a resident muiister. Here is the source of one of the great problems 
of church efficiency. Fifty churches aim to hold a preaching service 
every Sunday, 41 have services every second Sunday, 4 have 
services every fourth Sunday. In these are included 11 churches 
which at the present time, for various reasons, are not holding regular 
services at all. 

Forty-nine churches are without any form of organization for young 
people and 81 have no organization for their men. The church is 
here neglecting not only an effective method of religious work, but also 
an opportunity to teach men the needed lesson of cooperation in 
all their affairs by helping them to practice it in their church life. 

The churches are making little effort to serve the community as a 
social center. Their activities are undertaken for the sake of the 
money to be raised by them and not because the church feels itself 
obligated to furnish recreation and social facilities for their own sakes. 
In general, the social life of the churches is at a distinctly low ebb. 

The communit'i/s service to the church. — The aggregate annual bud- 
get for all the Protestant churches is $88,519. The total amount ex- 
pended on salaries per year is $31,247, and the average per minister is 
$842, the maxunum being $1,500 and the minimum $250. Of every 
dollar, 35.3 cents is for the minister's salary; 24 cents is contributed 
toward various benevolences, practically all of it going to the estab- 
lished boards of the different denominations; 3.3 cents is the cost of 
maintaining Sunday schools, while the remaining 37.4 cents is re- 
quired for the care of the church property and other runnmg expenses. 

The colored churches. — The colored churches are not so evenly dis- 
tributed throughout the community as the white churches, for the 
reason that the colored population is not evenly distributed. There 
are 40 in all, one to every 231 of the colored population. Three de- 
nominations are at work in the county, one of these having more than 
half of the churches. 

The average membership is 49.5 per church, and the total is 1,981, 
which is only 21.2 per cent of the population. That is to say, each 
church is reaching hardly more than one-fourth of its possible fol- 
lowing. At almost every point the colored church is much more 
inefficient than the white church. Not only have they a smaller 
proportion of their population enrolled, but their efforts at progress 
are in comparison feeble. In six years their net gain has been only 
10.8 per cent, as against 28.2 per cent for the white church. Only 15 
of the 40 churches are growing at the present time, 10 are stationary, 
10 are steadily losmg ground, while 5 are unmistakably dying. 
These churches aU cling to life with a remarkably tenacious grip. 
They rarely make an end of dying. Hence none of them have been 
abandoned. Yet very few of them have robust health. 



22 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

There are 37 church buildings, valued at S37,260, the average value 
being about SI, 000; 33 of these are one-room structures. Perhaps 
one-fourth of them are in reasonably good condition; the remainder 
are in various stages of dilapidation and deca3^ 

There are 18 mmisters in charge of 38 churches, 2 churches at the 
present time being pastorless. 

Of the 18 colored ministers, 6 have 1 church each; 7 have 2 churches 
each; 2 have 3 churches each; 3 have 4 churches each. 

On the face of it, this seems like a fair record, but it looks better 
than it is; for with two possible exceptions, the churches which have 
a minister on full time are in poorer condition than many of those on 
circuits. 

Of the 40 churches, 12 have a service every Sunday; 24 have two 
services a month; 4 have one service a month. The total attendance 
in all churches holding service is, on an average Sunday, a Httle more 
than 1,000. 

Thirty-eight of the churches have Sunday school, of which 28 are 
in session throughout the year. Their total membership is 1,402, and 
the total average attendance is 991. This is an average attendance 
and membership per school of 26 and 37, respectively. There are in 
all 164 teachers, 1 to every 6 pupils in regular attendance. 
' There are 15 young people's organizations, with a membership of 
418; 7 women's societies, with a membership of 370; 3 organizations 
for men, with a membership of 33, and 2 other organizations, with 
a membership of 75. This makes a total of 37 organizations, with 
an aggregate membership of 896. Twenty -five churches have no 
organizations at all excepting the Sunday school. 

The colored church appears to occupy a larger place socially in the 
lives of its members than the white church does. A great majority 
of the churches have some regular social features. The relation be- 
tween the church, the school, and the lodge usually is a close one. 
Most of the entertainments have the same financial consideration as 
in the white churches, but their social significance is great. 

The annual budget of the churches totals $10,867, an average of 
about $272 per church. Of this amount, $6,560 is for salaries. The 
average salary is only $364.45; the maximum is $748, the minimum 
$50. 



Chapter II. 

EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS. 

I. GENERAL FEATURES. 

Any discussion of the educational conditions of the county must 
center about the public-school systeni. It is here that the niost 
accurate register is foun'd of the general characteristics of the people 
as a whole. The public schools are not only by far the most important 
single factor in the educational process for the average community; 
they also sympathetically register the achievements of a people. 
An intelligent and progressive people build for themselves strong, 
adequate schools. An ignorant and nonprogressive people build 
their schools on the normal level of their hves. This is because the 
school is a social institution. Prosperous social institutions must 
always presuppose a prosperous population. As society is now 
organized, the school offers the conununity probably its one best 
opportunity to act as a unit. This opportunity it does not always 
grasp. Nevertheless, the school is apt to be a fau'ly accurate index 
both of the spirit of a community and of the ideals to which it responds. 

Organization and supervision. — The management and supervision 
of the public schools of Montgomery County are intrusted to a con- 
tinuing board composed of 6 commissioners, each appointed by the 
governor of the State for a term of 6 years, and to a county super- 
intendent appointed by the board. Each school has 3 local trustees, 
also appointed by the county board, who cooperate with it and under 
its direction has the immediate oversight of the work of the school. 
The county board, however, has complete and final control over the 
schools, and all matters of policy and administration rest with it and 
with the superintendent. 

Separate schools are provided for the white children and for the 
colored children, but both are under the same management and 
supervision and are parts of one system. 

Under this organization the management of each individual school 
is very direct and complete. The unit is the county. The superin- 
tendent as an agent of the board is required to visit each school in 
the county and personally see to its needs. One advantage of the 
system lies in the uniformity of its results. In no case can one school 
or the schools of one locaUty faU much below the general level for 
the county. The same standards of teaching efficiency are main- 
tained throughout the county. The course of study and the schedule 
of work are planned for all schools and given to the various teachers 
by the superintendent. All examination questions are also sent 

23 



24 



EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 



from his office. The instructional work of the schools is supervised 
as far as it is possible for one man to do so by the county superin- 
tendent.^ However, the county is so large and its schools so numer- 
ous that the proper supervision involves more work than one man 
can accomplish well. 

In organization for the management of the schools, the system in 
Montgomery County is the general type of organization for the entire 
State of Maryland. The Montgomery County board is composed of 
highly efficient men, genuinely concerned for the welfare of the 
schools and discharging their duties faithfully and with marked 
ability. 

In the detailed discussion which follows it is convenient to discuss 
the schools for white children and those for the colored children in 
separate sections. The former will be considered first. 

II. SCHOOLS FOR WHITE CHILDREN. 

Number, distribution, and Jcind of schools. — The total population 
of the county between the ages of 5 and 20 years is 10,800. Of 
this number, approximately 7,710 are white and 3,090 colored. 
There are in all 106 schoolhouses in the county, 76 of which are for 
white pupils.^ The county owns 103 of the buUdings and rents 3. 
There is one school for every 101 of the white population of school 
age and one for every 103 of the negro population of school age. The 
76 schools for white children include 7 high schools and 69 elementary 
schools. Of the elementary schools, 52 are one-room one-teacher 
schools, with seven or eight grades. The other 17 elementary schools 
have two or more rooms, and many carry the work as far as the tenth 
grade. 

The following table gives the distribution of the schools by election 
districts : 

Distribution of schools. 



Election districts. 



One-room 

elementary 

schools. 



other 

elementary 

schools. 



High 
schools. 



Total. 



1. Laytonsvillo. . 

2. Clarksburg . . . 

3. Poolesville... 

4. Rockville. 

5. Colesville 

6. Darnestown.. 

7. Bethesda 

8. Olney 

9. (Jaithersburg. 

10. Potomac 

11. Barnes ville.. . 

12. Damascus 

13. Wheaton 



Total. 



76 



1 An office clerk is employed to assist the superintendent and the county board in clerical work. 
'Several additional schools were opened in September, 1912. 



EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS. 



25 



Seventeen of the schools are located in towns ; 59 are located in the 
open country or in very small villages. The geographical distribu- 
tion is fairly even, and there is no section of the county without a 
school reasonably accessible; 41 of the schools are so situated as to be 
adjacent to stone roads, railroads, or trolley lines. 

Only one school in the county is a consolidated school with trans- 
portation of pupils at public expense.^ This is the Poolesville 
School, which maintains both an elementary department and a high- 




D fXJ/!/'L D/STf?/Cr SCYOOL ^IVfJ/TSj 
■ />Uf/IL O/STff/Cr SCHOOL (COLOfEOj 

}ipmvyirc SCHOOL o/f colccge 



Fig. 2. — Location of schools. 

school department. A glance at the school map above shows that 
this does not exhaust the possibilities for consolidation in the 
county. It will be noted that there are many groups of three or four 
small schools so situated that their pupils live within easy haul of some 
convenient center. Indeed it would not be at all difficult to plot out 
the county into districts, say from 15 to 20 in number, within which 
aU the schools might be centralized. In several sections agitation has 
aheady begun for some such readjustment. 



I Two additional consolidated schools have been established since the survey was made. 



26 



EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 



Tie material equipment— The 76 schools occupy 77 buildings, 70 
of which are frame structures, 5 are brick, and 2 are stone. The 
total number of rooms is 151, of which 140 were used for school pur- 
poses in 1912. The school law requires the maintenance of a certain 
average attendance before two teachers can be assigned to one school, 
so that a number of two-room buildings were in effect only one-room 
schools. 

In the following the total number of rooms, the number used for 
school purposes last year, and the number of one-teacher schools is 
shown by election districts: 

Schoolrooms by election districts. 



Election districts. 



Laytonsville. 
Clarksburg... 
Poolesville... 

Rockville 

Colesville.. . . 
Darnestown . 

Bethesda 

Olney 

Gaithersburg 

Potomac 

Barnesville.. 
Damascus. . . 
Wheaton 

Total 



Number 


Used for 


of school 


school 


rooms. 


purposes. 


12 


10 


11 


11 


8 


7 


20 


19 


8 


6 


10 


10 


5 


5 


20 


20 


16 


14 


6 


6 


7 


6 


12 


11 


16 


15 


151 


140 



One -room 
one- 
teacher 
schools. 



The one-room school is the greatest problem in the development of 
rural education. The most frequent criticism brought against the 
rural schools is that their courses of study and their teaching methods 
have been borrowed from the city schools, and that nothing has been 
offered the country pupils distmctly adapted to their actual sphere 
in life. In another connection is discussed the movement for broad- 
ening the curriculum of the rural schools by the introduction of 
studies intended directly to equip the pupUs for farm life. The later 
discussion of this subject may be anticipated by calling attention at 
this point to the relation which the proportion of one-room schools 
has to the problem. It must be remembered that the demand for 
broadening the curriculum is accompanied by an equally insistent 
demand for more efficient teaching. In the school in which one 
teacher has 30 or more pupils in 8 different grades, with the average 
length of the recitation period from 10 to 15 minutes, it is very diffi- 
cult to increase the efficiency of the teaching and to introduce new 
subjects into the curriculum. 

The chief defects of the school buildings are defects of architecture, 
rather than of equipment or condition. In general, it must be said 
that their equipment for school })ur])oscs is above the average for 
similar communities. All of the buildings are in a fair state of repair, 
and most of them are in good condition. Nearly half of them have 



EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS. 



27 



been built within the past 10 years. They are of suitable size, con- 
taining on an average about 650 square feet of floor space, with a 
ceiling 10 to 12 feet high. 

Their weakness from an architectural point of view arises from the 
fact that they appear to have been built with one idea in mind, that of 
providing seating accommodations for a given number of pupils. 
Little attention was paid to the questions of proper lighting, heating, 
and ventilation, three considerations of prime importance. 

In regard to the lighting in the 102 rooms in the buildings wliich 
contain the one, two, three, and four room schools, the arrangement 




Fig. 3.— Proportion of one-teacher schools. 

of the windows is as follows: 64 rooms have windows on the right 
and the left sides; 10 rooms have windows on the right and left sides 
and also in the rear; 16 rooms have windows at the left and rear; 10 
rooms have windows at the right and rear; 2 one-room buildings 
have windows on all four sides. 

It has been very generally agreed by authorities on the subject of 
school architecture that no schoolroom should be lighted from more 
than two sides and that, preferably, the light should come from one 
side only. In all cases, the strongest light should fall over the left 
shoulder of the pupil. If windows are provided on two sides of the 
building, they should be at the left of the pupils and at their rear. 
Windows at both the left and right cause a cross light which is very 



28 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

confusing and is harmful to the eyes of the children. Windows at 
the front of the room should not be tolerated under any conditions. 

There is no room in all these smaller schools which is lighted from 
one side only, and only 16 in which the windows are placed at the left 
and rear of the pupils. In 86 out of 102 rooms the method of lighting 
is distinctly faulty. 

The amount of window surface relative to the amount of floor space 
in the room is a matter of importance. Authorities agree that the 
total window space should equal at least one-fifth of the total floor 
space. Figures on this point are available for 90 rooms. In 41 of 
these the total amount of window surface was adequate, that is, it 
was equal to or in excess of one-fifth of the floor space. In 49 rooms 
it was inadequate, the amount of window space varying from one- 
sixth to one-tenth of the floor space. 

The color of the walls of a schoolroom has its effect on the lighting 
and on the pupils' eyes. Data were obtamed on this point from 77 
rooms. In 36 of these the walls are now, or were at one time, white. 
In 19 they are of a tan or buff color, m 9 cream, in 6 green, and in 5 
light blue. Wliite has several disadvantages, among which are the 
facts that it is easily soiled and when finished with a smooth surface 
has a glare that is relatively hard on the eyes. The most satisfactory 
color is a light-buff tint or a light gray. The space between the wm- 
dow sills and floor might be light brown. 

The heating arrangements in the 77 separate buildings are as fol- 
lows: Seven of tlie buildings are heated by furnaces; 10 are heated 
by jacketed stoves; 60 are heated by unjacketed stoves. 

Witli the jacketed stove it is comparatively easy to lieat a school- 
room evenly and to a proper temperature and to assure proper venti- 
lation. With an unjacketed stove it is very difficult to do either. 
The question of ventilation is a serious one in the one-room schools. 
Pupils can not do their best work without a ])roper supply of fresh 
air. The jacketed stove furnishes this fresh air at an even tempera- 
ture to all parts of the room, and it also removes the foul air from the 
room. In schools with the unjacketed stove the usual method of 
ventilation is by use of the wmdows. In cold weather particularly it 
is difficult to heat the room satisfactorily even with the windows 
closed. With them open for vpntilation it is practically impossible 
to secure a satisfactory temperature in all ])arts of the room. 

In regard to the blackboard space provided: In 90 rooms from 
which data were obtamed this varied from 25 to 245 square feet per 
room. The average for the 90 rooms was 86 square feet, an amount 
sufficient to accommodate amply 9 pupils at the board at on time. 
In 31 rooms the amount provided was insufficient. The quality of 
the board used was in most mstances satisfactory. In most of the 
rooms the bottom of the board was 36 inches or more from the floor. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1913, NO. 32 PLATE 3 




A. LAYTONVILLE SCHOOL. 



JH^ 


fc^B^ 




"^W 




IHr 


A 






11 ii 


j 






i 



£. CLARKSBURG SCHOOL. 



EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS. 29 

This is a convenient height for pupils above the third grade, but it is 
too high for those in the lower grades. In 46 one-room schools with 
eight grades each only 4 had the blackboard 26 inches or less from the 
floor, the proper height for the youngest children. In 17 other rooms, 
used for first and second grades only, only 5 had the blackboard 
placed at this height. 

In all but 13 schools the seating facilities are quite ample for pres- 
ent needs. In the Poolesville, Rockville, and Damascus districts 
there are two schools each without ample seating facilities. In all 
of the other districts, except Wheaton, Bethesda, and Laytonsville, 
there is one school each without sufficient seats for all the pupils. In 
28 schools there are musical instruments, either piano or organ. 

Twenty-two per cent of all rooms are fitted with single desks; 
practically all of these rooms are in the high schools and the larger 
elementary schools; 78 per cent have the old double desks. Only a 
very few rooms have adjustable desks. In the one-room schools 
particularly desks of proper size for the pupils were not found, and 
many children were using desks either too large or too small for them. 

In almost all of the schools throughout the county more or less 
attention has been paid to improving the interior by the use of pic- 
tures of noted men and women and of buildings or of scenery. These 
decorations represent all degrees of artistic appreciation and taste, 
but for the most part they are good. The Rockville High School 
deserves especial mention. It has recently purchased some excel- 
lent plaques and friezes from funds amounting to several hundred 
dollars raised by the pupils themselves. 

Fifty schools have pupils' cloakrooms; 26 have not; in only 6 
schools are teachers' rooms provided. All but 11 schools have good 
water supply; 56 have wells and 9 have springs on the school prop- 
erty or within a convenient distance. Sanitary conditions are in 
the main good. Ail but 4 schools have outside toilets, but only 12 of 
them are in any respect msanitary. 

Certam special features in equipment should be mentioned. As- 
sembly halls are provided in 5 schools. Well-equipped domestic- 
science and manual-training rooms are provided wherever these 
subjects are taught. The domestic-science room at the Rockville 
High School is particularly complete. Here each pupil is furnished 
with a small alcohol stove for the cooking experiments. Brookeville 
High School has a special domestic-science building. The latter 
high school is interesting in another respect also, m that it has room- 
ing and boarding accommodations for nearly 20 pupils, who drive in 
from the surrounding country on Monday morning and return to 
their homes on Friday night. 

Both as regards buildings and equipment, the pohcy of the present 
school administration has been one of expansion; 26 new school 



30 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

buildings have been erected within the past six years. Only 6 of 
these have been one-room buildings. In many of these provision has 
been made for a considerable growth in the future. The Woodside 
school, for example, is a two-story brick building with 7 recitation 
rooms and an assembly hall. Only 4 recitation rooms are at present 
requu-ed. The other 3 will be finished and opened as soon as there 
is need for them. 

Grounds. — The total acreage of the school grounds is 98^. This 
includes a 32-acre farm adjacent to the Brookeville High School, 
which is used in connection with the courses in elementary agri- 
culture. 

Thu-teen of the school lots are fenced; 36 are fairly level; 41 are 
either rolling or hilly; 11 have good walks; 63 have trees; 13 have 
flower beds; and 1 has a vegetable garden. 

The grounds of the larger schools are frequently well kept. The 
Brookeville High School is the best illustration of this. A fine lawn, 
beautiful trees, and a good athletic field make the appearance of this 
school veiy attractive. At the newer schools the grounds have not 
yet received much attention, and little effort has been made to 
beautify the surroundings of the one-room schools. 

In planning buildings and grounds, except as noted below, rela- 
tively little attention has been paid to the needs of the pupils for 
recreation. In another connection the lack of recreation facilities 
in the county is noted, and attention is called to the fact that there 
is apparently no institution which at present furnishes such facilities 
for their own sakes. It is very much to be desired that the school 
should enter this field and provide recreation in a systematic and 
thorough fashion. 

At several of the larger schools, notably the Sandy Spring, Brooke- 
ville, Gaithersburg, and Eockville High Schools, provision has been 
made for recreation. Tennis courts, basket-ball grounds, and baseball 
fields are available. Rockville High School has equipment for 
formal indoor gymnastics. Dumbbells and Indian clubs are pro- 
vided. This school also has guns and uniforms for a boys' battalion. 
In only 11 schools of the entire 76 is there any sort of play apparatus. 
At nearly one-half of the schools there is not even a suitable play- 
ground. The school lots are either too small or undrained, and 
therefore apt to be muddy in winter and spring, or they are so rough 
and broken that the ordinary games can not easily be played upon 
them. In only a very few instances was it found that the teachers 
superintend the play hour and teach the pupils games. It has been 
found that with a little oversight by the teacher the pupils learn 
through play many valuable lessons. 

Forty-seven schools do not have a United States flag. 

The following table gives the value of the school buildings and 
grounds by election districts, the Darnestown and Brookeville High 



EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS. 31 

Schools not being included in the totals for their respective districts 
or for the county, since they are not the property of the county: 

Value of 
Election districts: 'buildings. 

1. Laytonsville |6, 850 

2. Clarksburg 6, 750 

3. Poolesville 3, 700 

4. Rockville 35, 900 

5. Colesville 9, 300 

6. Darnestown 2, 250 

7. Bethesda 10, 500 

8. Olney 17, 700 

9. Gaithersburg 24, 100 

10. Potomac 2, 650 

11. Barnesville 3, 600 

12. Damascus 7, 700 

13. Wheaton 24, 050 

Total value 155, 050 

Teaching force. — The total teaching force in the white schools when 
the survey was made was 128, of whom 27 were males and 101 
females. An attempt was made to obtain information as to the 
general education and professional training of these teachers. The 
data obtained were incomplete, but accurate data were obtained of 
the teaching force for the term beginniag in September, 1912. They 
are included in the table below. It will be noted that the white 
teaching force has increased from 128 to 145. The general education 
and professional training of the white teaching force is as follows: 

Teachers who have completed — 

Elementary schools only 9 

One year of high school 2 

Two years of high school 7 

Three years of high school 9 

Four years of high school 48 

One year of normal school 7 

Two years of normal school 13 

Three years of normal school 14 

Four years of normal school 7 

One year at college 6 

Two years at college 5 

Three years at college 4 

Four years at college 14 

145 

Twenty-seven teachers attended summer school for 1 year; 9 
attended for 2 years; 7 for 3 years; and 3 for 4 years. 

One of the chief weaknesses of rural schools in the United States 
as a whole is due to the constant shifting of teachers from one school 
to another. It is probable that, for the United States as a whole, 
more than 50 per cent of the rural schools are taught by a different 



32 



EDUCATIONAL SUEVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 




EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS. 



33 



teacher each year. In this respect Montgomeiy County is fortunate. 
All the teachers in the spring of 1912 reported the length of time in 
the position they were then holding. The average length of time for 
the entire county was four school years. The average is very high. 
It is partly due to a few teachers whose length of service has been 
exceptionally long. Omitting these, the average tenure was approxi- 
imately three years. The average number of positions held by all 
the teachers during the past five years was 1.6, which is low when 
compared to averages for the United States. The average number 
of years of teaching experience was 8.1. 

An inquiiy was made to determine whether the teachers looked 
upon their teachmg occupation as a life work or not. Fifty-five 
reported that it was their intention to continue teaching indefinitely; 
50 had definitely decided to give up teaching in the near future; and 
20, mostly of the younger group of women teachers, had not as yet 
made up their minds on this point. 

Nine special teachers are employed in the county — four for domes- 
tic science, two for commercial branches, and one each for manual 
training, agriculture, and music. The four domestic science teachers 
are in the high schools at Rockville, Gaithersburg, BrookevUle, and 
Sandy Spring. The commercial teachers are in the Rockville and 
Gaithersburg High Schools. The Rockville and Gaithersburg 
elementary and high schools and the Kensington elementary school 
share the time of the manual training teacher. Sandy Spring and 
BrookevUle High Schools share between them a male teacher of 
agriculture. Sandy Spring elementary and high schools have a 
teacher of music. 

Pupils. — The total enrolhnent of the schools is 3,927 — 1,999 boys 
and 1,928 girls. The first table which follows gives the total enroll- 
ment by districts. The second gives the enrollment by grades: 

Enrollment in election districts. 



Election districts. 


Male. 


Female. 


Total. 




lis 

228 

105 

280 

134 

133 

82 

151 

152 

96 

99 

166 

255 


117 
170 
106 
263 

99 
114 

74 
164 
188 

87 
126 
157 
263 


235 


2. Clarksburg 


398 


3. Poolcsville .-. 


211 


4. Rockville 


543 


5. Colesville 


233 


6. Damestown 


247 


7. Bethesda 


156 


8. Olney 


315 


9. Gaithersburg 


340 


10. Potomac 


183 


11. Bamesville 


225 


12. Damascus 


323 


13. Wheaton 


518 






Total 


1,999 


1,928 


3,927 







34 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

Enrollment by grades. 



Election districts. 


First.i 


Second . 


Third. 


Fourth. 


Fifth. 


Sixth. 


Seventh. 


Eighth.2 


High 
school. 




52 

102 

43 

102 

46 

55 

39 

31 

75 

54 

62 

53 

115 


29 
35 
27 
64 
28 
31 
15 
26 
32 
14 
14 
46 
68 


31 
65 
22 
65 
34 
31 
31 
29 
40 
20 
30 
37 
79 


33 
69 
38 
54 
39 
39 
20 
25 
45 
26 
31 
51 
~ 71 


36 
53 
21 

70 
36 
27 
16 
24 
52 
26 
11 
42 
47 


29 
30 
23 
47 
26 
26 
15 
39 
25 
21 
16 
39 
S3 


21 
12 
17 
51 
16 
23 
24 
31 
31 
22 
16 
45 
47 


6 




1 

2 


2 
3 
3 
7 
16 





2. Clarksburg 





3. Poolesville 


22 


4. Rockville 


83 







6. Damestown 


12 







8. Olney 


101 




38 


10. Potomac 










12. Damascus 


13 


13. Wheaton 









Total 


829 


429 


£14 


541 


461 


389 


356 


40 


269 







> Under "first grade" are included the beginner's class as well as the first grade proper. Two years is 
required in many cases for admission to second grade work. 

2 Pupils pass directly from the seventh grade to the high school. Those under this heading are taking 
advanced work in elementary schools not located within easy reaching distance of any high school. 

The total white population of school age in the county is 7,710. 
The enrollment of the schools is 50.9 per cent of this total. For the 
entire contmental United States, according to the United States 
Bureau of Education, the proportion of the population of school age 
enrolled in the public schools is 64.2 per cent. Montgomery County, 
then, is nearly 14 per cent below the average for the country as a 
whole, even allowing for the number (probably 60 to 70) who attend 
private schools and colleges. The State legislature has just passed 
a compulsory attendance law (1912), requirmg the attendance of 
children under ,14. This law was adopted by the Montgomery 
County board, and goes into effect in the fall of 1913. It should do 
much toward remedymg this condition.^ 

The total average daily attendance for all schools was 2,629, or 
67.3 per cent of the enrollment, and 34.1 per cent of the school 
population 5 to 20 years of age, inclusive. This means that 65.9 
per cent of the total number of white children of school age were 
not in regular attendance upon the public schools, a proportion 
large enough to cause serious concern. The schools might reasonably 
be expected to show a larger proportion in regular attendance. 
There were some interesting differences between the dififerent districts 
in this respect. 

I The low enrollment was due in part to the large number of children in Bethesda and Wheaton districts 
attending school in the District of Columbia. Regulations regarding the attendance of nonresident children 
in the schools of the District of Columbia, effective in September, 1912, increased the enrollment in the 
Montgomery County schools by approximately 600. 



EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS. 



35 




Fig. 5.— Enrollment. 




Fig. 6.— Average attendance. 



36 



EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 



Table showing the total average attendance, average attendance per school, and the per 
cent of attendance to enrollment by election districts. 



Election districts. 


Average 

number 

attending 

daily. 


Average 
attendance 
per school. 


Number 
attending 
dally for 
every 100 
enrolled. 




161 
243 
146 
398 
125 
156 
122 
246 
239 
97 
118 
210 
378 


20.1 
27.0 
29.2 
56.8 
25.0 
26.0 
61.0 
49.2 
47.8 
19.4 
23.6 
30.0 
54.0 


68.6 




61.0 




68.8 




73.3 




53.8 




63.4 




78.2 


8 Olney - 


78.1 




70.2 




53.0 




52.0 




64.0 


13. Wheaton 


72.9 






Total 


2,639 


347.0 


65.9 







The percentage of attendance to enrolbnent is relatively high 
(68 per cent or more) in districts 1 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, and 13. The reasons 
for this are not far to seek. Poolesville had at the time of the survey 
the only consolidated school with public transportation of pupils in 
the county. The other sbc districts have the best transportation 
facilities, both as regards roads and accessibility of railways and 
trolleys. The proportion m regular attendance is relatively low 
(64 per cent or less) in districts 2, 5, 6, 10, 11, and 12, where the 
transportation facilities are not good. There is nothing finally 
conclusive about this, and certain local variations are not thereby 
to be accounted for. This would not explain, for example, why the 
attendance is better in the Damascus district than in the ColesviUe 
district. It does, however, show a general tendency and indicates 
that the school as well as the farm needs good roads. 

Student organizations. — There were last year in existence only 13 
student organizations of any sort in the schools in the county. Of 
this number, 8 were debating and literary societies, 2 were athletic 
associations, and 1 was a boys' brigade. It does not appear tliat 
fuU advantage is taken of a fine opportunity. The total membership 
of these 13 societies was about 250, a very small proportion of the 
pupils who might profitably have been organized in a similar way. 

In 1911 a step was taken toward a larger service to the bo3^s in the 
schools when a corn-growing contest was initiated by the president of 
the board of school commissioners. Not much interest was manifested 
in this the first year, although the contest was successful in a small 
way. This year the Agricultural High School at Sandy Spring has 
taken charge of the matter and will make this contest a permanent 
feature of the year's program in connection wdth an annual "corn 
congress," to be held in the faU. Prizes ranging from $5 to $50 have 
been offered and the contest is open to all boys from 10 to 15 years of 
age. The conditions of the contest are: 



EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS. 37 

(1) All of the work must be done by the boy except the plowing. 

(2) The corn grown on the acre shall be the property of the boy, whether he wins a 
prize or not. 

(3) The following basis shall be used in awarding the prizes: 

Per cent. 

Greatest yield per acre 40 

Best showing of profit on investment 40 

Best written account showing history of crop 20 

Total 100 

(4) Boys must keep a record of the time spent in doing the work and of the expendi- 
ture for seed, fertilizer, etc. 

(5) The amount of land used shall be 1 acre for each boy. 

The contest in 1912 was well advertised, and great interest was 
manifested in it. It is hoped that results of considerable importance 
will follow. 

Studies. — The teacher in a one-room school has many things to 
do and very limited time to do them in. Tliis is one of the prime 
reasons why the criticism holds true here, as in every place where the 
one-room school exists, that the curriculum of the country school 
contains little or nothing that distinctly prepares for country life. 
In spite of the fact that conditions are far better here than in many 
other rural communities, the fact is that each teacher in the county 
must conduct on the average 23 recitations per day with the average 
tune allotted each recitation only 15 minutes. In the one-room 
school the number of recitations is even greater, being approximately 
30 in each school. The tune for each recitation is of course shorter, 
the average being 1 1 minutes. A program so f uU leaves opportunity 
for very little beyond the limits of the prescribed course of study, 
which contams only those subjects familiarly referred to as the 
"common branches." This course of study and the plan of work 
based upon it are prescribed by the county school commissioners, 
and are patterned largely after the town and city school course. It 
emphasizes, particularly in the higher grades, the cultural rather than 
the industrial. It needs to be revised for the country school. The 
curriculum does not take into account the special conditions under 
which the country pupil is to live and work. There is need of a 
fundamental readjustment which will in part take the form of the 
introduction of certain courses having direct bearing upon the country 
pupil's needs and in part take the form of a shift in emphasis through- 
out the entire course of study. It is not to be supposed that cultural 
studies should be dropped from the curriculum of the rural school. 
In certain instances they might well receive increased attention. 
The pupils might devote more time to music and drawing than they 
are now doing. 

A beginning has already been made in the larger schools of the 
county toward this readjustment. Special courses have been mtro- 
duced and in some instances special teachers have been procured to 



38 



EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OP MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 



train the pupils along certain practical lines. An inquiry was made 
as to the extent to which certain subjects, deemed of special impor- 
tance for rural children, were taught. These subjects were nature 
study, elementary agriculture, domestic science, manual training, 
music, and drawing. The following table indicates the number of 
schools teaching each and the extent of the work. By "little" is 
meant that approximately from 15 to 30 minutes per week is given to 
talks, observation, or elementary exercises; by ''medium" is meant 
that some systematic effort is made to teach the subject at prescribed 
periods throughout one or two years, enough time being given to it 
to assure some thoroughness; by "much" is meant that there is a 
full four 3^ears' course offered, with special teachers. The figures 
refer to the number of schools in which these studies are taught. 

Number of schools teaching certain subjects. 



Subjects. 



Nature study 

Elementary agriculture 

Domestic science 

Manual training 

Music 

Drawing 



Not at all. 


Little. 


Medium. 


43 


20 


4 


52 


13 


4 


m 


4 





67 


1 


3 


48 


19 


4 


46 


22 


4 



Much. 



It will be noticed that the greater proportion of the schools give 
no time at all to these studies, while only a small number attempt to 
teach them thoroughly. Four high schools — Rockville, Gaithers- 
burg, Brookeville, and Sandy Spring — each have a special teacher of 
domestic science; three schools — Rockville, Gaithersburg, and Ken- 
sington—share the time of one man as an instructor in manual train- 
ing. Sandy Spring and Brookeville High Schools share between them 
the entire time of one man for teaching elementary agriculture. 
Rockville and Gaithersburg each have a commercial teacher. Sandy 
Spring has a special teacher giving her entire time to nxusic. The 
Sandy Spring and Brookeville High Schools are probably the most 
interesting schools in the county in these respects. Each is a genuine 
rural high school, making definite and successful efforts to adapt their 
pupils to the conditions of country life. 

Fifty-one schools have libraries varying in size from 1 volume to 
2,000 volumes per school. The total number of volumes in all the 
schools is over 7,000, the average for each school reporting being about 
138. The schools reporting libraries may be gi'ouped as follows: 

Schools having libraries with from — Schools. 

1 to 25 volumes 4 

25 to 50 volumes 11 

50 to 75 volumes 9 

75 to 100 volumes 5 

100 to 2C0 volumes 17 

200 to 500 volumes 4 

Over 500 volumes 1 



EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS. 39 

The books are mostly general literature, histories, essays, poetry, 
and fiction. For the most part the selection is from a list approved 
by the State board of education. About 50 per cent of the pupils 
above the fourth grade use the books more or less regularly. 

Forty-sLx schools reported that they gave in 1911 a total of 151 
pubhc entertainments. These were variously literary or musical 
programs, home-talent plays, lectures, or celebrations arranged for 
various holidays. They were largely attended by the school patrons 
in most instances. 

Nine schools are so located that they are affected by private or 
parochial schools. Several schools near the line of the District of 
Columbia lose a number of their pupils to the Washington City schools. 
The schools in Takoma Park are slightly affected by the Seventh Day 
Adventist Seminary. The RockvUle High School is affected by the 
Rockville Academy. 

High schools. — There are in the county seven public high schools, 
located at BrookeviUe, Darnestown, Gaithersburg, Germantown, 
Poolesville, RockvUle, and Sandy Spring. Tliere is one in each of 
five election districts, Poolesville, Rockville, Colesville, Gaithersburg, 
Darnestown, and Damascus, and two in Olney. The school at Rock- 
ville is the county high school. It is the only high school in the 
county listed by the State department of education in "Pubhc high 
schools of the first group." The BrookeviUe, Sandy Spring, and 
Gaithersburg High Schools are listed by the State department as 
schools of the "second group." 

To be classed in the "first group" a high school must have 80 or 
more pupils, four or more academic teachers, a four-year course of at 
least 36 weeks a year, a course of study prescribed by the State 
department, and must conform to several other regulations of the 
State department. A "second group" school must have 35 or more 
pupils, two or more academic teachers, a three-year course of at least 
36 weeks a year, and must conform to the regulations of the depart- 
ment. The State contributed to each of the schools in the second 
group $1,400 for the year ended in June, 1912, and to the Rockville 
High School $2,300. 

Of the three graduates of Sandy Spring School in June, 1912, one 
entered the Pennsylvania State CoUege and one the University of Vir- 
ginia. Of the eight graduates of BrookeviUe, two entered the State 
Normal School at Baltimore, two the Western Maryland College, and 
one St. Johns CoUege at Annapohs. None of the four graduates at 
Gaithersburg is in a higher institution, but two are teaching in the 
county. 



40 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

The following table gives data regarding the seven schools: 
High schools in Montgomery County. 





Years 

in 
course. 


Days 
in 

ses- 
sion. 


Teach- 
ers. 


Students, by years. 


Grad- 
uates, 
June, 
1912. 


Books in 
library. 


Value of 
grounds 

and 
buildings. 


Appa- 
ratus, 


Districts. 


First. 


Sec- 
ond. 


Third. 


Fourth. 


equip- 
ment, 
and fur- 
niture. 


Brookeville 

Damestown 

Gaither.sburg... 
German town... 

Poolesville 

Rockville 

Sandy Spring. . . 


4 
4 
3 
3 
3 
4 
4 


180 
190 
195 
190 
180 
180 
ISO 


6 
2 
2 

4 


21 

G 
19 
23 

10 
40 
18 


19 
3 
19 
5 
12 
27 
14 


13 

4 
7 
4 

19 
5 


8 
4 

n 

4 


8 
4 
4 

3 
12 
3 


200 
269 
975 
200 
200 
360 
259 


$15,000 
35,000 
20,000 
5,000 
5,000 
40,000 
5.000 


S600 
500 

1,500 
100 
500 

5,000 
500 



HI. SCHOOLS FOR COLORED CHILDREN. 

Numher, distribution, and Mnd. — There are 30 schools for colored 
children m the county, one to every 103 of the colored population of 
school age. They are all elementary schools with six or fewer grades. 
The number of schools for colored children, by election districts, are as 
follows: Laytonsville, 3; Clarkesburg, 2 ; Poolesville, 3 ; Kockville, 2; 
Colesville, 3; Damestown, 4; Bethesda (a colored school was opened 
in Bethesda district in September, 1912), 0; Olney, 4; Gaithersburg, 3; 
Potomac, 1; Barnesville, 2; Damascus, 1; Wheaton, 2; total, 30. 

These schools are so located that there is no considerable settle- 
ment of negroes anywhere in the county without a school reasonably 
accessible. In the Bethesda district, which is the only district with- 
out a colored school, the children go to the schools in the District of 
Columbia. 

The colored schools are a part of the county school system, con- 
trolled, supervised, and maintained in the same manner as the white 
schools, but there is a feeling among many in the county that few of 
the negroes are taxpayers and that, consequently, the support of 
their schools by the county is more or less of a missionary enterprise. 

The material equijjment. — There are 28 school buildings, of which 
23 are owned by the county and 5 are rented. One school holds its 
sessions hi a church, and one occupies a room in a hall. These build- 
ings contam in all 38 rooms, of which 34 were last year used for 
school purposes. Twenty-eight schools are one-room, one-teacher 
schools. This proportion raises the same problem as with the white 
schools. The colored children stand as much m need of training 
along industrial and agricultural Imes as the white cliDdren. But 
the introduction of such courses into the curriculum of a one- 
room school is impracticable without good teachers and adequate 
supervision. 

The school rooms vary in size from 374 square feet to 1,000 square 
feet. The average-sized room contains about 560 square feet of 
floor space. In more than one-half of the schools this is not sufficient 



p 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



SULLETIN, 1913, NO. 32 PLATE 4 




A. COLORED SCHOOL, LODGE HALL, AND CHURCH, NORBECK. 



' rv^ 






;*';'-'li 


" V^^ iH 


^^ ^ Aill 


/ ^ ^ 


.J ^^ 




P^^H^B n t Va^ ■ 



B. NORBECK COLORED SCHOOL. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1913, NO. 32 PLATE 5 




A. TYPICAL COLORED SCHOOL. 




B. TYPICAL COLORED SCHOOL. 



EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS. 



41 



for the accommodation of the pupils who desire to attend. In 16 
schools the seating facilities were not sufl&cient for the number of 
pupils enrolled. 

In all of these rooms the light comes from both sides, and in several 
it comos from both sides and the rear. In no mstance is the light 
received either from the left only or from left and rear only. In at 
least 20 of the rooms the total amount of window space is insufficient, 
according to the rule that the total amount of window space should 
equal or exceed one-fifth of the total amount of floor space. 

The average amount of blackboard provided per room is 48 square 
feet, enough to accommodate five pupils at the board at a time. 




Figure 7. 

Very few schools have as much board space as they need. In at least 
10 schools the amount provided is wholly inadequate. With a single 
exception, the blackboard is placed from 30 to 42 inches above the 
floor. The average for all rooms is about 36 inches. 

In 20 rooms there is provided some sort of decoration, mostly 
unframed pictures and posters. The walls of more than one-half 
were originally white, but age and use have reduced most of them 
to about the same condition, variously described as cream, buff, or 
drab. 

In general, nearly all of the schools are in a more or less dilapidated 
condition. All the buildings are frame. Most of them were origi- 
nally as well put up as the schools for white children, but they have 



42 



EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OP MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 



not been kept up. Consequently they are out of repair. Few of 
tliem have been pamted. Their general appearance is one of neglect. 

Twenty-eight of the 30 schools are equipped with double nonad- 
justable desks; one has single desks, and one, bemg a church, has 
pews. All of the buildings are heated by stoves, these being in 26 
cases nonjacketed. Only one building has a cloak room, while none 
has a teacher's room. At 19 schools there is either a well, a spring, 
or a cistern on the school property; 11 have no water supply. All 
of the schools have outside toilets. At 14 schools these were in an 
insanitary condition, and at 10 they were improperly placed. 

Twenty-one schools had globes, maps, and charts of some sort, 
although these are in many cases old and poor. Nme schools have 
none at all. The county furnishes the books for all pupils in the 
colored schools. Not very good care is taken of them by the pupils; 
consequently, there was usually found an insufficient number of 
books, and those found presented a very ragged appearance. 

The total acreage of the school grounds is 24. All but 2 schools 
have at least a fair plat of ground, 7 of the lots are fenced, 16 are 
level, 12 are rolling or hilly, 6 have trees, 3 have flower beds, and 1 
has a vegetable garden. Practically no attention is paid to beauti- 
fying the surroundings of the schools. 

None of the schools has any play apparatus of any sort, and prac- 
tically no provisions are made for the recreative life of the pupils. 
The school grounds are not usually very well adapted for playing 
games. Only three are provided with American flags. 

The county has invested $10,750 in the 23 school buildings which 
it owns. The average value per building is about $470. The follow- 
ing table gives the number of schools owned, the total value, and the 
average value per school by election districts: 

BuHdings used for colored schools. 



Election districts. 


School 

buildings 

owned. 


■ Total 
value. 


Average 
value. 


Laytonsville 


3 
1 
2 
2 
3 
3 

4 
1 

2 
1 
1 


$850 

500 

800 

1,000 

1.300 

1,300 



2,700 

250 



950 

a50 

750 


S283.33 


Clarkesburg .... 


500.00 


Poolesville 


400.00 


Roekville 


500.00 


Colesville 


433. 33 


Darnestown 


433.33 


Bethesda 


0.00 


Olney 


675.00 


Gaithersburg 


250.00 


Potomac 


0.00 


Barnesville 


475.00 


Damascus 


350.00 


Wheaton 


750.00 






Total 


23 


10, 750 


467. 39 







EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS. 

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS-7 GRADES 



43 




VII 



Fig. 8.— Enrollment by grades in the schools for colored chUdren. (The figures at the left Indicate 
the percentage of the total enrollment; the figures at the bottom indicate tlie grades. There are no 
pupils beyond the seventh grade.) 



44 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OP MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

Teaching force. — The 30 schools have a teachmg force of 33 (6 
males and 27 females); 27 of these reported that they had had a 
normal or industrial school training. The average number of years 
of teaching experience is 9.6. Only 4 teachers were teaching for 
the first time last year. The average length of time spent in the 
present position was reported as 3 years. This average is in part 
due to a few cases of exceptionally long tenure, but more than one- 
half of the teachers have held their present positions 2 years or more. 
One-fourth of them have held their positions 4 years or more. The 
average number of positions held during the last 5 years was 1.8 
per teacher. This means a more than ordinarily stable teaching 
force. The advice of the president of the colored teachers' association 
to the teachers on this point of tenure was brief but pithy: "Stay 
in a locality until you know it, and until you make the people love 
you; then leave it whUe they still love you." Of the 33 teachers, 30 
declared that it was their intention to contmue teaching permanently. 
The average salary paid last year was $24.86 per month, or $174 
per annum. ^ 

The general education and professional training of the colored teach- 
ing force is as follows : 

Teachers who have completed — 

Elementary scliools only 1 

One year of high school 1 

Two years of high school 1 

Three years of high school 4 

Four years of high school 10 

One year of normal school 1 

Two years of normal school 12 

Three years of normal school 

Foiir years of normal school 1 

One year at college 2 

Two years at college 1 

Three years at college 1 

Four years at college 3 

38 

Five teachers attended summer school for 1 year, 4 attended for 
2 years, and 2 for 3 years. 

Pupils. — The total enrollment of all schools last year was 1,782 — 
918 boys and 864 girls. It will be noticed that for the county as a 
whole there is a decided drop in the enrollment after the fourth grade. 
In 2 districts this drop is postponed until after the fifth grade, but 
in no case is the enrollment kept up to the normal standard in the 
sixth and seventh grades. 



EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS. 

Enrollment, by sex and by grades. 



45 



Election districts. 


Male. 


Female. 


Total. 


Grades. 


First. Second. 


Third. 


Fourth. 


Fifth. 


Sixth. 


Seventh. 


Laytonsville 

Clarkesburg 

Poolesville 

Rockville 


61 
51 

122 
92 
96 
78 


167 
81 
31 
63 
23 
53 


54 
49 

122 
61 
79 
69 


174 
90 
28 
66 
20 
52 


115 
100 
244 
153 
175 
147 

341 
171 

59 
129 

43 
105 


50 

45 

125 

73 

58 
77 

135 
66 
30 
68 
18 
59 


16 

25 

34 

23 

32 

9 



56 

23 

6 

13 

8 

9 


26 
12 
30 
33 

29 
23 


67 
26 

9 
24 

3 
21 


18 

6 

29 

10 

29 

19 



29 

48 

6 

16 

8 

7 


5 
8 

10 
9 

25 
6 


22 
8 
4 
3 
4 
8 



5 
8 
4 
4 
5 

3 
1 
4 
2 
2 
1 




2 
1 


Coles ville 





Dam8sto^vn 

Bethesda 






Olney 


4 


Gaithersburg 

Potomac . . 






Bamesville 

Damascus 

Wheaton 


2 








Total 


918 


864 


1,782 


1804 


254 


303 


223 


112 


39 


9 



1 ITnder first grade is included a beginners' class and the first grade proper. A large number of pupils 
require two fuU years before taking second-grade work. 

The total colored population of school age is 3,090. Of this num- 
ber, according to the figures given, 57.6 per cent are enrolled in school. 
The average attendance is 1,087, or 36 per school, which is 60.9 per 
cent of enrollment and 35.1 per cent of the school population — 5 to 
20 years of age, inclusive. This means that only 35.1 per cent of the 
entire number of colored children of school age regularly attend 
school. 

There were only 4 organizations for pupils, 2 of which were literary 
societies and 2 temperance societies. They had a total membership 
of 160. 

Studies. — The length of the year's session is fixed by the county 
as 140 days. This term, it is generally felt by those in touch with 
the colored schools, is too short for satisfactory work to be accom- 
plished. In certain school districts enough money was raised locally, 
by private subscriptions, to keep the schools open for 2 months 
longer. The average number of recitations held per day was 20 
per teacher, and the average length of the recitation period was 18 
minutes. The following table shows to what extent the 6 special 
subjects which we have previously mentioned were taught. The 
figures refer to the number of schools. 

Number of schools in which certain subjects are taught. 



Subjects. 


Not at all. 


Little. 


Medium. 


Much. 


Nature study 


20 
24 
21 
19 
13 
12 


8 
4 
7 
8 
14 
18 


2 
2 
2 
2 
3 






Elementary agriculture 





Domestic science 







1 


Music . 















46 



EDUCATIONAL SUKVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 



Fair progress has been made in the work of introducing manual 
training and domestic science. The most interesting school in this 
respect is the Sharp Street Industrial School near Sandy Spring. 
This school offers complete courses in various forms of manual train- 
ing work and domestic science. The need of these courses and their 
practical value for the colored children are readily seen, and efforts 
are making to introduce the work generally throughout the county. 

In the spring ot 1912 an industrial exhibition for all colored schools 
was held at Sharp Street. The results showed that, all things con- 
sidered, in those schools in which industrial training is undertaken at 
all the work done is of a very high class. 

The school as a social center. — It is probably true that the colored 
school fills a larger place, socially, in the lives of its patrons and pupils 
than the white school does. More than half the schools reported 
pubHc entertamments of some sort, such as concerts, special pro- 
grams arranged in celebration of hoHdays, etc. These were generally 
very well attended. 

IV. THE SCHOOL BUDGET. 

The total cost of the schools for the 3'ear 1911-12 was $105,807.95. 
Of this amount $78,897.01 was spent directly on schools for white 
children and $6,158.41 on schools for negroes, as follows: 

Expenditures for schools. 



Items. 



White 
schools. 


Negro 
schools. 


$3,645.22 
714. 70 

58, 942. 80 
6, 599. 43 
2,075.38 
4,511.00 


$526.05 
39.46 
4, 728. 30 
165.98 
105. 62 
462.00 



Fuel 

Apparatus and furniture 

Teachers' salaries 

New buildings and repairs 

Sanitary expenses and incidentals 
Cost of books 

Total expenses 



78,897.01 



6, 158. 41 



The statement of receipts and disbursements for the year ended 
July 31, 1912, given by the county school commissioners, is as follows: 

Receipts. 

Balance on hand July 31, 1911 $2, 540. 28 

State school tax 31, 237. 07 

State free-school fund 2, 297. 76 

County school tax 37, 500. 00 

Interest on deposits -86 

High-school fund 6, 500. 00 

Sales of books 58. 00 

Library fund 10. 00 

Brookeville fund 600. 00 

Free-book fund 4, 139. 06 

Colored industrial fund 1, 500. 00 

Sale of abandoned schools (Spencerville, |310; Old Germantown, $75) . . . 385. 00 

Proceeds of notes 13, 500. 00 



EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS. 47 

Tuition fees received from adjoining counties $303. 50 

Darnestown fund 500. 00 

Anticipation county commissioners 10, 000. 00 

Refund ^ 46. 00 

Sale of coal (1-4, |63; 1-9, $38.90) 101.90 

Rent hall, 1-7 50. 00 

Sale from agricultural department 3. 44 



111, 272. 87 
Disbursements. 

Rent $867. 50 

Fuel 4, 171. 27 

Repairs 5, 291. 41 

Apparatus and furniture 754. 16 

Teachers' salaries 63, 671. 10 

New buildings 1, 473. 99 

Sanitary costs 301. 58 

Incidentals 1, 879. 42 

Kindergarten and manual training 1, 671. 99 

Office expenses 150. 52 

Salaries of secretary, treasurer, and county superintendent 1, 400. 00 

Salary of assistant 750. 00 

Salaries of school commissioners 600. 00 

Commissioners' incidentals 44. 94 

Tuition fees paid to adjoining counties : 102. 50 

Colored industrial department 1, 785. 79 

Commencement exercises 50. 00 

Discount and interest 1, 352. 15 

Superintendent's traveling expenses 250. 00 

Agricultural department 1, 224. 72 

Commercial-course expenses 1, 193. 55 

Record books 53. 00 

Printing 337. 15 

Domestic science 818. 62 

Advertising 154. 75 

Telephone 103. 30 

Freight and drayage 268. 64 

Term reports 53. 15 

Stamps and stationery 153. 70 

Insurance 398. 28 

Expenses of institutes 322. 42 

Furniture to schools 1, 121. 31 

Expenses of State and county association 156. 00 

Free books and distribution 4, 989. 72 

School libraries 35. 00 

Examinations 181. 45 

Auditing accounts 62. 50 

Teachers' registers 45. 00 

Attorney's fees 30. 00 

Bonds 90. 00 

School supplies 447. 37 

Notes paid 7, 000. 00 

Balance cash on hand, July 31, 1912 5, 464. 92 

111, 272. 87 

1 Armour Co., $17.44; W. J. C. Pulany Co., 68 cents; Wood?icie trustees, $26.77; domestic science, $1.11. 



48 



EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 



The total amount raised during the year, excluding the balance on 
hand at the beginning, was $108,732.59. This money came from 
the following sources: 

Per cent. 

From the State 42. 

State school tax 28. 7 

State free-school fund . 2. 1 

High-school fund 6. 

Free-book fund 3.8 

Colored industrial fund 1.4 

From local sources: 

County school tax 34. 5 

Proceeds of notes 12. 4 

Loans in anticipation of the county commissioners '. . . 9. 2 

Other sources 1. 9 

100.0 

The expenditures grouped under the general headmgs used by the 
United States Bureau of Education in classifying school expendi- 
tures are as follows: 

Per cent. 

I. General control (school board, superintendent and office expenses) 3. 9 

II. Instruction: 

Salaries of teachers 60. 

Textbooks, stationery, supplies 11. 9 

III. Operation and maintenance of school plant (fuel, repairs, etc.) 11. 8 

IV. Miscellaneous 4.5 

V. Liquidation of debts (bonds, loans, etc.) 6. 6 

VI. Interest on indebtedness 1. 3 

Data for 1911-12 showing the amount expended in each election 
district were not available at the time of this survey. The figures 
for 1910-11 were obtained, and are as follows: 

Expenditures for schools for irhites and for colored. 







AVhite schools. 




Colored schools. 




Election district.s. 


Salaries. 


Apparatus, 
new build- 
ings and 
repairs. 


Fuel and 

inci- 
dentals. 


Total. 


Salaries. 


Total. 


All schools, 
grand 
total. 




$4,152.50 
4,551.58 
2,675.10 
7, 802. 50 
3,313.48 
3,663.72 
2,579.15 
5,434.55 
5,531.80 
2,331.30 
2,978.13 
4, 181. 75 
7,181.08 


$31.00 

158. 00 

1,085.35 

1,413.03 

5,155.02 

224. 05 

10.75 

623.79 

8, 717. 95 

33.46 

49.55 

4, 776. 79 

991.81 


$253.23 
1,139.31 
373.39 
486.50 
323.57 
180.59 
147. 48 
569. 79 
462. 04 
187.02 
209. 88 
175. 09 
732. 24 


$4,678.73 
5,411.54 
4,274.84 

11,528.53 
9,045.07 
4, 299. 36 
2,881.38 
8,300.13 

15,215.23 
2,761.78 
3, 455. 45 
9, 499. 78 

10,319.77 


$450.80 
324. 40 
499. 20 
490.00 
4.57. 89 
573.50 
0.00 
1,599.50 
479.00 
163. 40 
344. 00 
144. 00 
317.00 


$526. 81 
406. 47 
601.52 
587. 27 
605.85 
701. 87 
0.00 
3,064,82 
687. 81 
196. 50 
476. 14 
194. 62 
398. 40 


$5,205.54 


Clarksburg 


5,818.01 




4,274.84 




11,528,53 


Colesville. 


9,045.07 




4, 299. 36 


Bethesda 


2,881.38 


Olney 


11,364.95 




15,903.04 




2,958.24 


Bamesville 


3,931.59 




9,694.36 


Wheaton 


10,718.17 








56,381.64 


23,270.55 


5, 220. 25 


99,771.59 


5,852.69 


8,448.08 


108,219.67 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1913, NO. 32 PLATE 6 




A. GAITHERSBURG HIGH SCHOOL. 




B. POOLESVILLE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



5ULLETIN, 1913, NO. 32 PLATE 7 




A. ROCKVILLE ACADEMY. 




B. DOMESTIC SCIENCE BUILDING, BROOKVILLE HIGH SCHOOL. 



EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS. 



49 



- The total expenditure for the county for 1910-11, based on the 
average daily attendance, and including the expenditure for new 
buildings, amounted to S37.83 per white pupil and $7.77 per colored 
pupil per year. The money spent for supervision, office expenses, 
etc., divided equally among all pupils, colored and white alike, 
assuming that each shares equally in advantages which it purchases, 
would be $2.72 per pupil. This would make the total average cost 
of education for each white pupil in average daily attendance $40.55. 
The annual expense for each colored pupil, figured m this way; would 
be $10.49 per year. The following table gives, by election districts, 
the average cost for white and colored pupils. The variation between 
districts is partly accounted for by the difference in the amount spent 
last year for new buildings and repairs upon the schools of certain 
districts. 

Cost of schools per capita of average attendance. 



Election districts. 



White 
pupils. 



Colored 
pupils. 



Lay tonsville 

Clarksburg 

Poolesville 

Rock ville 

ColesvUle 

Darnestown 

Bethesda 

Olney 

Gaithersburg 

Potomac 

Barnesville 

Damascus 

Wheaton 

Average, entire county 



S31.77 
24.99 
31.99 
31.68 
75.08 
30.28 
26.33 
36.45 
76.38 
91.19 
32.00 
47.94 
31.23 



«9.22 
8.14 
7.34 
8.96 
9.09 

10.18 
No schools. 

18.91 
8.59 
7.51 
7.89 

16.62 
8.75 



40.55 



10.49 



If the cost of the new buildings is omitted, the total cost per white 
child amounted to $30.90. This, including the $2.72 for administra- 
tion, amounts to $33.62. The white schools cost, therefore, for main- 
tenance more than three times as much per pupil as the negro schools. 
Including the cost of new buildings, the county expended 3.87 as 
much on every white child in average daily attendance as on every 



negro chUd. 



V. PRIVATE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



There are six private educational institutions in the county — the 
Rockville Academy; Miss Simpson's Primary School, at Rockville; 
the Bliss Electrical School, at Takoma Park; the Chevy Chase College 
and Semmary; the National Park Seminary, at Forest Glen; and the 
Washington Foreign Missionary Seminary, at Takoma Park. Only 
the first two and the last have direct local importance. The 
RockvUle Academy was established over 100 years ago and has been 
maintained continuously ever since. It was one of a group of four 
96359°— 13 4 



50 EDUCATIONAL SUEVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

academies, of which the other three — the Darnestown Academy, the 
Brookevillc Academy, and the Sherwood School, at Sandy Spring — 
have been taken over by the county and made part of the public 
school system. The Rockville Academy, however, continues as a 
private institution. It has practically the same course as the public 
schools, beginning with the sixth grade and continuing through the 
high school. It has a weU-equipped brick building with fine grounds. 
The enrollment last year was about 40. The faculty consists of two 
men. Its pupils are drawn from Rockville and vicinity, aU living in 
the county. Miss Simpson's school has an average enrollment of 
about 20, all from RockviUe. The school is held in a private home, 
which is, however, very conveniently arranged. 

The Washington Foreign Missionary Seminary is the only other 
school which draws pupils from within the county. This is a training 
school for candidates for the foreign mission field, and is operated by 
the Seventh Day Adventist denomination in connection with a large 
sanitarium at Takoma Park. Academic work of high-school grade 
is offered, and a number of pupils from the town of Takoma Park are 
enrolled in the school. The number, however, is never very great. 
The majority of the students come from other States. The equipment 
of the school is very complete, and its grounds are beautifully arranged. 

The Bliss Electrical School offers a one-year course in electrical 
engineering and similar subjects. It has two buildings, with class- 
rooms and laboratories and several dormitories. It has a faculty of 
seven. The graduating class of 1911 numbered 104. It had in 1912 
no pupils from Montgomery County or from the State of Maryland. 
The two girls' seminaries in the county draw nearly all their students 
from other localities. They have considerable influence upon the 
social and educational life of their respective neighborhoods and have 
some economic significance in that they furnish employment for a 
considerable number of residents. Otherwise they are not locally 
unportant. Each school has beautiful grounds and splendid build- 
ings. 



Chapter III. 

PATRONS OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

In order to estimate the significance of the public-school system 
and to place the proper value upon the work which it is doing, it is 
necessary to ascertain what place it actually fills in the life of the 
community. The first step toward this end is to consider the schools 
objectively, i. e., to investigate the material equipment, the teaching 
force, the enrollment and attendani*e, and all the various activities 
of each individual school. The second step is to study the attitude 
of the people toward the schools in order that a correct understanding 
may be had of what the schools mean to the people. The latter study 
was Undertaken. The inquuy was made for the following purposes: 

(a) To determine whether in the opinion of the school patrons the 
schools as actually operated were servuig their respective communities 
in a satisfactory manner. 

(b) To determme what the patrons consider to be the principal 
weaknesses of the local schools, and of the general school system of the 
county. 

(c) To obtain suggestions from the patrons for school improvement. 

(d) To secure statements expressing their attitude toward the 
adoption of a policy of consolidation of schools with the transporta- 
tion of pupils at public expense. 

(e) To secure information relative to the general temper and atti- 
tude of the people of the county toward education. 

The study was made in. the following manner: In the course of 
the general survey of the county, mvestigators discussed various 
phases of the school question both privately, with representative 
men and women, and publicly at meetmgs of farmers' clubs and similar 
organizations. In addition to this, a questionnaire was prepared 
and sufficient copies were sent by the county superintendent of schools 
to aU the public-school teachers in the county, so that they might 
obtain from the heads of families in their districts written answers to 
the six more or less pertinent questions on the blanks. These ques- 
tions were as follows: 

1. What, in your opinion, are the principal weaknesses of the country school? 

2. Do the schdols need a different course of study? 

3. How may they serve the community other than as an ordinary day school for 
children? 

4. Do you think consolidation of schools and the transportation of pupils in school 
wagons feasible? 

5. Are the schools as they are now operated satisfactorily progressive? 

6. What would you suggest to improve them? 

51 



52 EDUCATIONAL SUKVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

The total number of public-school patrons in the county was roughly 
estimated as about 2,800, of which number 2,000 were patrons of 
white schools and 800 of the colored schools. Both groups were 
included m the investigation. About 2,000 blanks were distributed 
and about 700 were returned filled. The investigators labored under 
no delusion as to the efficacy of the questionnaire method to finally 
exhaust any subject. They appreciated thoroughly the danger of 
trustmg too implicitly in the accuracy and value of answers to set 
questions asked in this fashion. Also they realized that the number 
of blanks returned was hardly a sufFicient proportion of the whole 
number to form a safe basis for any very definite final conclusions. 
The answers, however, seemed quite representative. They came 
from all classes and conditions o{ people, and represented all degrees 
of education and general enlightenment. Moreover, though differmg 
widely from each other in many particulars and mcluding many shades 
and varieties of opmion, there are yet certain general lines of cleavage 
running through them all. 

As a result, then, of the two lines of inquiry followed, certain con- 
clusions seem safely established. First, in relation to the white 
schools, it is apparent that on the whole the county has pride in its 
present school system and is satisfied that its present admmistration 
is making substantia,l progress along the right lines. Fifteen per cent 
of the patrons answering offered no criticisms at all, favorable or 
otherwise. Sixty-five per cent stated that they considered the schools 
satisfactorily progressive and gave reasons for their belief. Many 
others indorsed the school admmistration, but included adverse 
criticisms and suggestions for improvement. 

The chief criticisms advanced were aimed, not so much at the 
method of conducthig particular schools or at any particular points 
in the methods of supervision and general admmistration practices 
in the county, as at the wliole principle involved in such a scliool system. 
Implicitly and explicitly the one-room one-teacher school was 
attacked. Certam weaknesses of the schools which exist principally 
in such schools were clearly indicated. Certain remedies involving 
fundamentally a departure from such schools were advocated. Yet 
it was evidently not often clear in the mmds of the writers where the 
remedy for the defects which they pointed out must inevitably lead, 
or what sort of a reconstruction the reforms wliich they suggested 
would make necessary. 

Approximately 75 per cent of the answers received are covered in 
effect by the f ollowmg criticisms : 

(1) There are too few teachers for the amount of work to be cov- 
ered. Each teacher is compelled to teach too many grades. 

(2) The common branches are not taught with sufficient thorough- 
ness, and yet the special branches of particular value to country 
pupils can not be undertaken at all. 



PATRONS OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 53 

(3) There is no room iii the curriculum for speciaUzation, nor 
would the teachers be able to prepare themselves for it if there were. 

(4) The salaries are too low, and in consequence there are too many 
relatively inefficient, poorly trained teachers. 

(5) There is no proper mducement for highly trained men and 
women, desirous of making teaching a life work rather than a tem- 
porary means of gaining a livelihood, to devote themselves to the 
work of education in the country. 

(6) The buildings and equipment are not always up to the stand- 
ard, and the rooms are frequently overcrowded. 

(7) The work is not carried far enough in those schools upon which 
a majority of the pupils are dependent. In many sections pupils 
desiring work beyond the seven or eight grades offered in the one- 
room schools must travel away from home to obtain it. The children 
of poorer families are not able to go away from home to school, con- 
sequently theiir education is brought to a premature close. 

The attendance of pupils, particularly of the younger pupils, is very 
irregular whenever weather and roads are bad, and consequently 
satisfactory results are hard to obtain. These are all conditions 
which would be in large measure ehminated by closing the small 
schools and providing educational opportunities in a single school 
centrally located. 

The demand for more highly specialized courses of study was 
particularly insistent. There was a widespread feeling expressed 
that the country schools do not prepare adequately for country life. 
Suggestions which found many supporters had to do with the intro- 
duction of classes in agriculture and nature study, in domestic science 
and manual traming, and in the principles of business procedure. 
Such courses are already given successfully in a number of the schools 
of the county. Other districts wish the same advantages. As one 
instance of this feeling, a recent meeting of the Goshen Farmers' 
Club may be cited. For five hours the following proposition was 
discussed: A large sum of money is now raised by taxation in Mont- 
gomery County for the support of the Maryland Agricultural College ; 
is Montgomery County getting the largest possible return for the 
money spent, or might not a larger return be received if the money 
were used in the county for teaching the principles of agriculture in 
the public schools? The 30 representative farmers present finally 
put themselves on record as in favor of the following propositions: 
That the principles of scientific agriculture by all means ought to be 
taught to country children; that the proper medium for this is the 
public school; that, therefore, such courses ought to be established in 
every school; and, finally, that the money now raised for the support 
of the agricultural college would produce better results if used to 
teach agriculture in the public schools. At a meeting of the Mont- 
gomery Farmers' Club of Sandy Spring a similar proposition received 



54 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

the general support of those present. This indicates the attitude 
of the progressive and thinking farmers throughout the county. 
They are ready to have the ordinary branches of study supplemented 
by these special branches, but do not recognize the difficulties in 
securing instruction in these subjects as long as the school system 
contains so many isolated one-teacher schools. 

All the defects m the schools which are mentioned by the patrons 
are inherent in a system of separate one-room schools. The condition 
is one which the school admmistration is helpless to remedy, unless 
public sentiment will support a sweeping policy of reconstruction 
and reform. The school administration is dependent upon the 
sentiment of the people, not only to furnish adequate funds but also 
for moral support. Both of these must be forthcoming in larger 
quantities before any fundamental reconstruction can take place. 

There are two ways to remedy the conditions. One way would be 
to decrease the present number of schools, making each school at 
least a two-room, graded school, equipped with modern appliances; 
to increase the salaries paid teachers, thus attracting to these schools 
trained, efficient men and women; and m addition to provide special- 
ists to teach the various branches of agriculture, domestic science, 
manual training, business, music, and drawing m each and every 
school. 

The other way is to abolish as rapidly as possible the crossroads 
one-room school, with its one poorly paid teacher strugglmg to teach 
30 or more pupils in seven or eight dilTerent grades, and to establish at 
convenient centers consolidated or centralized schools. Grades of 
high-school rank could be added to every such school, and teachers 
with special traming for agriculture and domestic science be provided 
to teach those subjects now almost necessarily omitted from the 
curriculum. Public transportation could be provided for the pupils, 
thus doing away with irregular attendance on account of bad weather 
and poor roads. However, the people in those districts which suffer 
most under the present system are not yet ready to indorse the 
establishment of consolidated schools. The opinions among all the 
school patrons as expressed in the returns to the questionnaire were 
two to one against consolidation with public transportation of 
pupils. 

It is not the purpose here to attempt to include a discussion of 
consolidation. A brief statement only will be given to point out 
that in a consolidated school it is quite possible to remedy the defects 
and meet the demands mentioned by the school patrons ; to broaden 
the curriculum, mcrease the number of grades, and at the same time 
raise the standard of teaching efficiency. Several thousand consoli- 
dated schools in the United States testify to the success of the plan. 
The cost is not prohibitive, for the expense of such a school is but 



PATRONS OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 55 

little, if any, more than the expense of maintaining the schools which 
it displaces. The Baltimore County Agricultural Pligh School, a con- 
solidated school with a high-school department, provides training 
of the mind and couples with it an extensive and varied service to the 
conmaunity as a whole at a total cost per year of only ^34 per pupil. 
The schools in Montgomery County cost $40.55 per pupil. In the 
strictly rural schools the cost is at least $30. 

The question of consolidation is a point on which there needs to be 
much public education. The term "education" is used advisedly. 
At the present time, judging from the results of the inquiry, the term 
"consolidation" is entirely misunderstood by a great many who 
oppose it in Montgomery County. Many fear that public transporta- 
tion of school children would never be satisfactory because attended 
by such grave moral dangers to the children or because they would 
be subjected to exposure while waiting for the wagon. These diffi- 
culties have not been found insurmountable where children are 
transported. As evidence that many did not understand what was 
involved in the query regarding their opinion of consolidation included 
in the inquiry a few answers might be quoted. One man replied: 
"I did not know that the schools had a wagon in them to transfer 
the pupils to the different rooms." Another wrote: "No; the chil- 
dren are away from home too long as it is." A third declared that 
he "did not think it right for the school children to hang on the 
wagons passing along the road." 

Aside from these, other interesting criticisms were made touching 
points more easily dealt with. For example, many asserted the chief 
weakness of the schools to be in the lack of intelligent cooperation on« 
the part of parents and trustees. They asserted that a teacher could 
not be expected to conduct a school to the entire satisfaction of a 
community unless she had such cooperation from the patrons and 
the board of trustees. Others pointed out defects in ventilation, or 
lighting, or sanitary conveniences, or expressed regret at the lack of 
proper playgrounds, recreational facilities, and attractive surround- 
ings. These things they considered an important part of the school's 
equipment. Still others very properly advocated the elimination of 
politics from the school system. One wrote in language that deserves 
to become classic: "I respectfully suggest that the school secures a 
divorce from politics and sees to it that politics gets a life sentence at 
hard labor." 

Others suggested a compulsory school-attendance law.* A more 
uniform and careful grading of the schools to facilitate passage from 
one school to another in case of removal ; some system of moral train- 
ing; facilities for giving proper attention to deficient and backward 
children are all points deserving careful consideration. 

1 Such a law has since been passed by the State legislature and becomes effective in Montgomery County 
in the fall of 1913. 



56 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

The question as to whether the school could serve the community 
other than as an ordinary day school for children was asked in view 
of the possibility of making the school something of a neighborhood 
center, ministering to the community as a whole as well as dispensing 
elementary knowledge to its youth. Many of the answers anticipated 
this conception of the school's possible function. "Make it a social 
and civic center" was frequently suggested. "Make it a place where 
the school patrons may meet both formally and informally to discuss 
questions of mutual interest and import." Few of the schools are at 
present doing anything of this sort for their patrons, but this is a 
field possible of extensive development, which should add materially 
to the school's value to a community. 

By the fifth question, "Are the schools as they are now operated 
satisfactorily progressive?" it was desired to learn if the people felt 
that the school administration has been making sufficiently substan- 
tial progress in adapting the schools to changing conditions and in 
keeping up with modern ideas of school administration, equipment, 
and teaching methods. Of course it was discovered that there are 
some who have no conception of progress, either of its nature or of 
its reason for being; who feel, as one expressed it, "that we have the 
same old arithmetic, a geography describing the same territories, and 
the same methods of spelling; why should the school be progressive ? " 
Why, indeed! "The school is good enough as it is, so let it be." For 
the most part, however, the attitude of the patrons was that prog- 
ress is necessary and that the schools have been making it to a satis- 
factory degress, and that, taking everything into account, they are 
doing all that can reasonably be expected of them. 

Taking the county over, it is undoubtedly true that the patrons 
are not sufficiently impressed with their responsibility toward the 
school. It has already been remarked that the school provides the 
community, in its present state of organization, with its one great 
opportunity to act as a unit. In their religious life they are split up 
into denominations and factions; in their struggle for economic ad- 
vancement they are working as individuals and not as a group. But 
the school is the property of the whole community and furnishes 
practically its only opportunity for concerted action. The people 
have, however, almost uniformly failed to grasp the full significance 
of this opportunity and have hampered the school administration, 
sometimes by their total indifference, sometimes by active criticism 
and opposition to progressive policies, and always by not giving them 
suflicient funds to carry out their plans. Several happy exceptions 
are to be recorded. The Sandy Spring school was recently remodeled 
and the Woodside school was built with a large amount of local help. 
These two schools especially are receiving the intelligent and able 
cooperation of their communities. 



PATRONS OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 57 

The situation as regards the attitude of the colored patrons is more 
simple. Little needs to be said, but that little may be said with 
emphasis. The same opinions wore uniformly expressed by intelli- 
gent and ignorant alike, by preacher and layman, by teacher and 
patron. These all said in substance: "Give us a longer school term; 
give us better school buildings and equipment; pay our teachers more 
nearly adequate salaries; add to the curriculum courses in manual 
training and domestic science and extend the course of study through 
the eighth grade." 

Three ways were suggested by which the schools might enter upon 
a larger service for the colored population. These were to conduct 
a night school for those who had been compelled to leave school early, 
to have classes in domestic science and industrial training out of 
school hours for any of the patrons who felt the need of instruction 
along those lines, and, lastly, to make of each school a social and civic 
center. As to the progressiveness of the schools, the opinion was 
about evenly divided. 

In general, it must be said that the patrons of the negro schools 
display a most commendable interest in their welfare and progress. 
As we have said before, in several instances they are raising funds and 
keeping the schools open two months longer than they would be other- 
wise. In other respects they are for the most part ready to assist the 
teachers and respond gratefuUy to their influence. 



Chapter IV. 
GENERAL SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 

In this discussion of the educational conditions attention has been 
called to what appear to be defects in the pubhc-school system; 
in the buildings and equipment, in the management, or in the general 
poHcy of administration. A model county demands a model school 
system. The existing school system has been compared with the 
ideal. The comparison may create an impression that the schools 
of Montgomery County are not as adequate and efficient as the 
schools of the State as a whole. This is not true. Montgomery 
County schools compare very favorably with those of the other 
counties of Maryland. However, they, with the others, fall short 
of the ideal of the school system nocossary if the country children 
are to receive equal educational opportunities with those of the best 
American cities. 

Summing up conditions, the chief weaknesses noted are as follows: 
The preponderance of one-room schools and the absence of con- 
solidation; defective methods of lighting, heating, ventilation, and 
of seating pupils; the lack of organizations for punils and of recre- 
ation facilities; the low proportion of children of school age enrolled 
or in regular attendance; the slight attention paid to the beautifying 
of the surroundings of the school buildings; and the absence from 
the curriculum of studies preparing for country life. Over against 
these weaknesses we must cite other and very important sources of 
strength: Direct and capable supervision; uniform grading; a suffi- 
cient number of buildings in good repair; a teaching force experi- 
enced, relatively stable, and efficient; a fair beginning of introducing 
into the curriculum those subjects most closely adapted to rural 
needs; and a number of high schools which in equipment and in 
the grade of work done are well above the average for similar 
communities. 

In view of the facts brought to light by the study, several recom- 
mendations are offered: 

Organization and supervision. — The management of the schools of 
Montgomery County, as in all Maryland counties, is centralized in 
the hands of one board of education. Such a system is known as 
the "county system" of organization and is probably the most 
efficient and economical of all systems for rural schools in the United 
States. Only four other States are so organized. Under this 
58 



GENERAL SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 59 

system are provided the best opportunities to promote the educa- 
tional interests of the entire county. Under no other form of 
organization has such rapid development taken place in rural school 
affairs, except under the township organization as found in New 
England and in a few other States. The township system, however, 
has proven especially efficient only in thickly settled sections. Any 
system to be effective must have at the head of its school affairs a 
board of education composed of capable persons who will perform 
their duties for the best interests of the schools and the communities, 
regardless of the demands of political party affiliations. The Mont- 
gomery County board is unquestionably composed of capable men, 
and in the management of school affairs it seems to be free from 
political influence. 

The school system of the county is weak in the amount of super- 
vision given the teacher in her work both m managing the school 
and in teaching. Expert supervision is given by but one person — the 
county superintendent — and he must divide his time between work 
as an agent of the county board in the management of the school 
affairs of the county and as a supervisor of the teachers and their 
work.^ The county includes approximately 521 square miles of 
territory, with 106 separate school buildings distributed quite evenly 
over the entire county. There are 162 teachers. Under such condi- 
tions little personal supervision is possible. The school year is 
approximately 180 days in length, the school being in session 5^ 
hours per day, or a total of 990 hours in the entire year. If the 
county superintendent could spend this entire 990 hours in the 
schools while classes were reciting, he could give but 9 hours to 
each building during the entire year and but 6 hours to each teacher. 
In actual practice he can not devote more than one-half of his time 
to visiting schools, and part of this time is consumed in driving 
from one school to another. 

Contrast this condition with the amount of supervision in the 
city of Baltimore. In 1910 there were 58 supervisory officers 
devotmg half or more than half of their time to supervising the 
work of the 1,778 teachers employed. And the city was criticized in 
"The Report of the Commission Appointed to Study the System of 
Education in the Public Schools of Baltimore" because the super- 
vision was considered by the experts who made the study inadequate 
in amount! Baltimore had but one such supervisor for every 32 
teachers, while the average for the 18 largest cities in the United 
States that year was one for every 19 teachers. It is on account of 
this supervision in city systems that the great progress has been 
made in city schools and for the lack of it that the country schools 
have failed to keep pace. In every business enterprise but public 

1 The county superintendent has an office assistant but no field assistant. 



60 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

education it is recognized that to obtain the best results supervision 
from bottom to top is essential. 

With the present number and distribution of schools Montgomery 
County should employ at least 3 assistant superintendents, who would 
devote their entire time to supervising the work of the teachers. 
This would give 1 to every 35 schools, or 1 to every 54 teachers. The 
amount of supervision would still be inadequate, but would be a 
vast improvement over the present amount. These assistants should 
be under the direct authority of the county superintendent. Each 
should be assigned a definite part of the county, so that they would 
come to know their schools and their patrons, and could acquire 
close, definite mformation relative to their district, not only as 
regards educational affairs, but all interests of the community. It 
is only when in possession of such knowledge that it is possible for 
the supervisors to so direct the schools and their work that they 
would fill more nearly the place which the country schools should 
occupy in their communities. 

Other counties in Maryland are seemg the necessit}^ of assisting 
the county superintendent m his field work. Four are now employ- 
ing assistant superintendents to visit schools and assist and supervise 
their work; four employ from one to six special supervisors, such as 
a "primary supervisor," "rural school supervisor," etc. 

TTie course of study. — The curriculum of the schools of Montgomery 
County includes little but the common branches which have been 
taught in country and city schools for the past decade. A readjust- 
ment is desirable, so that the studies pursued would be more closely 
correlated with the life and interests of the community. More time 
and attention should be given to mstruction in elementary agriculture, 
domestic science, manual traming, music and drawing, and the com- 
mon branches should be taught in terms of these subjects. It is 
realized, of course, that the ordmary country teacher herself can not 
do much to bring about this readjustment, on account of lack of 
training and lack of information relative to how the readjustment 
may be effected. The county superintendent alone, with the mani- 
fold duties thrust upon him, can do but little. Such readjustment 
and redu'ection of the work of the schools can be accomplished sat- 
isfactorily only by a county superintendent assisted by several 
supervising officers working under his authority and direction, who 
can direct and aid the teachers in the introduction of work in these 
newer subjects and in establishmg the proper balance and relation- 
ship between them and the older subjects. The problem is greater 
than the mere addition of new studies to the curriculum. Under 
present conditions the average teacher in the one-teacher country 
school conducts about 26 recitations per day of approximately 12 
minutes in length. There is no time for additional classes. The 



GENEBAL SUMMAEY AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 61 

new subjects must be taught by means of and through other subjects 
ah-eady in the curriculum in place of useless portions now included. 
Such being the case, the necessity of expert supervision is made all 
the greater. 

Number of schools. — The number of schools contained in the 
county, from the standpoint of efficiency and economy, is too great. 
There are 69 elementary schools for white children, or one for every 
7| square miles of territory. This means that, if the schools were 
symmetrically distributed, no part of the county would be more than 
2 miles from a school, 90 per cent of the territory would be within 1 h 
miles, and 42 per cent within 1 mile. If the number of schools for 
white children should be decreased to 35, there would be one school 
for every 15 square miles. If the schools should be located at the 
center of squares 15 square miles in area, or less than 4 miles on a 
side, one-fifth of the territory would be within 1 mile of the school, 
four-fifths within 2 miles, and the farthest point would be but 2.8 
miles from the buildmg. By a proper arrangement taking into con- 
sideration the geographical features of the country and the location 
of the population, the 35 schools could be so placed that approxi- 
mately 95 per cent of the school children would five within 2 miles 
of a school and at least 60 per cent within 1 mile. Under such condi- 
tions transportation at public expense would be necessary only on 
exceptional days, as the children would be withm walking distance. 
While it might not be possible to extend the area for each school to 
15 square miles, there are many sections where consohdation with 
transportation of pupils at public expense is entirely practicable and 
where the school might serve an area of 25 square miles. 

Decreasing the number of schools would not lessen the number of 
teachers in the county to any great extent, as the number of pupils to 
each teacher under present conditions is high. It would, however, 
increase the size of each school to two or three-teacher schools with 
enough pupils to permit a classification m such a way that the effi- 
ciency of the teaching would be doubled or trebled. It would allow 
also adequate expert supervision at a comparatively small cost and 
would decrease the cost of mamtenance appreciably. It would mean 
a much more efficient school service at about the present outlay. 

On the whole the white schools of Montgomery County may be 
said to rank high in the excellence of their work in comparison with 
other county systems. The same may be said about the negro 
schools, although they are relatively inefficient as compared to the 
white schools of the county and are poorly housed, equipped, and sup- 
ported. It is probably true that the county is expending upon the 
negro schools an amount as great as is paid by the negro population 
in direct taxes. It is becoming a recognized principle of economy, 
however, that the responsibility of a city, county, or State to its 



62 EDUCATIONAL SUEVEY OF MONTGOMEKY COUNTY, MD. 

people or to any part of them for the best interests of all the people 
in the political unit can not be measured in terms of the direct taxes 
paid. 

The criticism made relative to the lack of supervision and to the over- 
abundance of small schools would apply equally as well to the larger 
number of counties in the majority of States in the Union. From 
the 2,000 inquiries made during the recent survey of the county a 
general appreciation of these two needs seems to exist. 

In concluding this discussion of the educational conditions, the 
investigators desire to express their appreciation of the kindness of 
all those whose assistance made the survey possible. In particular 
they are indebted to the teachers m the public schools, who all 
cooperated with them in the work, and to Mr. Earle B. Wood, the 
county superintendent of schools, who not only extended every 
personal courtesy, but also assisted the progress of the investigation 
in every way possible. 



APPENDIX. 

Table No. 1. — How the total value of farm property is distributed. 

Land in 1910 $12, 678, 278 

Land in 1900 9, 491 , 930 

Buildings in 1910 5, 163, 580 

Buildings in 1900 3. 525, 170 

Implements and machinery in 1910 733, 843 

Implements and machinery in ly U 576, 010 

Domestic animals, poultry, etc., in 1910 2,282,768 

Domestic animals, poultry, etc., in 'P' 1,486,558 

Per cent of value of all property (1910) in— 

Land 60. 8 

Buildings 24. 8 

Implements and machinery 3.5 

Domestic animals, poultry, etc 10.9 

Average values (number of all farms, 2,442): 

AH property per farm $8, 542 

Land and buildings per farm 7, 306 

Equipment and stock 1, 236 

Table No. 2.—Hotv the land is held — Size of farms. 



Size of farms. 


Per cent of 
all farms 
operated 
by white 
farmers. 


Per cent of 
all farms 
operated 

by colored 
farmers. 




17.67 
13.4 
18.2 
24.46 
13.23 
11.61 
1.33 


69.3 


20-49 acres 


16.0 


50-99 acres 


6.8 


100-1 74 acres 


5.4 


175-259 acres 


1.7 


260-499 acres 


.9 


500-999 acres 









Table No. 3. — How the land is held — Kind of tenure. 





Per cent of all farms 
operated by — 




White. 


Colored. 


Owners 


68.7 
.1 

5.8 
21.7 

3.7 


71.3 




.0 


Part owner 


7.4 




19.4 




1.3 







Table No. 4. — The age of farmers. 



Ages. 



24 years and less . 

25-34 years 

35-44 years 

45-54 years 

55-64 years 

65 years and over 



I 



Per cent 


Per cent 


of total 


01 total 


number 


number 


white 


colored 


farmers. 


farmers. 


3.2 


0.6 


15.8 


11.5 


24.3 


16.1 


23.6 


26.2 


18.8 


24.7 


13.6 


21.5 



63 



64 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

Table No. 5. — Distribution of public roads. 





Macadamized and ordinary pikes. 


Dirt. 




District. 


State 
built. 


County 
built. 


Turn- 
pikes 
(toll 
road). 


Total 
stone. 


Grand 
total. 




3. 800 
1.295 


0.435 
1.830 




4.2.35 
12.875 


56. 550 
61.8^5 
60.500 
65. 795 
51 290 
59. 250 
57 450 
76. 300 
50. 430 
44. 750 
37 i80 
45.375 
60.250 


60.55 




9.750 


74 75 


Damascus 


60.50 




4.875 

.735 

3.000 


.330 
2.435 




5.205 
3.i70 
3.000 
4.590 
2.450 

12. 320 
4.500 

12. 5'0 
8.8"5 

25. 250 


71 00 


Gaithersburg 




58 58 






62 25 




4.590 
2.450 
7.650 
4.500 
12. 570 
8.500 
9.830 




62 00 








78.75 




4.670 




62.75 


Potomac 




49.25 








49.75 






.375 
14.125 


54.25 


Wheaton . 


1.295 


85.50 






Total 








99. 040 




829 88 















Table No. 6. — Census table showing population by districts andtoiunsfor 1890, 1900, 1910. 



In 1910. 



In 1900. 



In 1890. 



Montgomery County 

District 1 , Laytonsville, including Laytonsville town 

Laytonsville town 

District 2, Clarksburg, including Hyattstown town 

Hyattstown town 

District 3, Poolesville, including Pooiesville town 

Poolesville town 

District 4, Rockville, including Rockville town and part of Garrett Park 
town 

Garrett Park town (part of) 

Total for Garrett Park town in districts 4 and 7 

Rockville town 

District 5, Colesville 

District 6, Darnestown 

District 7, Bethesda, including Glen Echo and Somerset towns and part 
of Garrett Park town 

Garrett Park town (part of) 

Glen Echo town 

Somerset town 

District 8, Olney, including Brookeville town 

Brookeville town 

District 9, Gaithersburg, including Gaithersburg town 

Gaithersburg town 

District 10, Potomac 

District 1 1 , Barnesville 

District 12, Damascus, including Damascus town 

Damascus town 

District 13, Wheaton, including Kensington town and part of Takoma 
Park town 

Kensington town 

Takoma Park town (part of) 

Total for Takoma Park town in district 13, Montgomery County, and 
district 17, Prince Georges County 



32,089 



1,866 
133 

1,995 
98 

2,170 
175 

3,459 
111 
185 
1,181 
2,234 
1,589 

3,217 
74 

203 

173 
2,826 

160 
2,623 

625 
1,329 
1,865 
1,809 

170 

5,107 

689 

1,159 

1,242 



30, 451 



1,981 
148 

2,013 
81 

2,343 
236 

3,488 
175 
175 
1,110 
2,192 
1,675 

2,027 



3,321 

158 

2,383 

547 

1,630 

1,685 

1,770 

148 

3,943 
477 
756 



27,186 



1,950 



1,812 
'2,' 416 



3,045 



1,568 
2,280 
1,684 

1,143 



3,216 



2,260 



1,422 
1,876 
1,522 



2,559 



164 
164 



Table No. 7. — Division of population according to residence. 





In 1910. 


In 1900. 




Population. 


Per cent. 


Population. 


Per cent. 


Town 


2, 340 
2,611 
27,138 


7.3 
8.1 
84.6 


1,866 

1,889 

26,696 


6.1 


Village 


6.2 


Rural 


87.7 






Total 


32,089 




30,451 











APPENDIX. 65 

Table No. 8. — Division of population according to residence, omitting districts 7 and 13. 





In 1910. 


In 1900. 




Population. 


Per cent. 


Population. 


Per cent. 




1, 181 

1,472 

21,112 


5.0 
6.2 

88.8 


1,110 

1,342 

22,029 


4.5 




5.5 


Kuial . 


90.0 






Total 


23,765 




24,481 











Table No. 9. — Denominational strength. 



Presbyterian, U. S. A 

Methodist Episcopal 

Protestant Episcopal 

Baptist 

Methodist Episcopal South 

Methodist Protestant 

Presbyterian, U. S 

Seventh Day Adventists 

Friends 

Christian 

Lutheran 

Free Methodist 

Primitive Baptist 

Christian Scientists 

Catholic 

Colored churches 

Baptist 

Methodist Episcopal 

African Methodist Episcopal 



Churches. 



Buildings. 


Minis- 
ters. 


Member- 
ship. 


8 


6 


815 


16 


6 


1,.346 


16 


11 


1,043 


8 


2 


570 


17 


7 


1,769 


4 


2 


372 


2 


1 


113 


1 





406 


2 





291 


2 


1 


80 


1 


1 


40 


2 


1 


79 


3 


2 


63 








7 


9 


5 


2,707 


7 


4 


209 


23 


9 


1,467 


7 


5 


305 



Value of 
property. 



$67,500 
45,000 

106,400 
36,309 
65,348 
10,400 
16,300 

"'6,'566 
9,000 
3,000 
1,000 
3,500 



2,660 
28,700 
5,900 



Table No. 10. — The cost of the church and the cost of the school. 



Protestant white churches and schools: 

Total amount invested in property 

Interest on this investment at 6 per cent 

Total cost of maintenance 

Total number days in use per j-ear — aggregate days. . 

Actual cost per day in use, per church or school 

Cost per day — rent equivalent of interest on property 

Total cost per day in use, per church or school 

Colored churches and schools: 

Total amount invested in property 

Interest on this investment at 6 per cent 

Total cost of maintenance 

Total number days in use per year— aggregate days . . 

Actual cost per day in use, per church or school 

Cost per day — rent equivalent of interest on property 

Total cost per day in use, per church or school 



Churches. 



1364, 
S21, 



«37, 
S2, 



757. 00 
885.42 
245.00 

4,216 
S15.71 

S5. 19 
$20.90 

260.00 
2.35. 60 
150.00 
1,875 
$4.35 
$1.19 
$5.54 



Schools. 



$155, 



050. 00 
, 303. OO 
, 949. 67 

14, 288 

$7. 4a 

$0.67 
$8.15 

, 750. 00 

$645. 00 

,393.62 

4,200 

$2.71 

$0. 15 



Benevolences excluded. 



Blanks used in collecting data relative to the schools and the churches. — 
The school blanks were filled by the school-teachers. The investi- 
gators, however, visited the majority of schools in the county. Tlie 
blanks for the opinions of the heads of families were distributed and 
re-collected by the teachers. The church blanks were filled by the 
pastors of the various churches, assisted by the investigators. 
96359°— 13 5 



66 EDUCATIONAL SUEVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 

School Blank. 

No. of school ; name ; location (distance from nearest town) . 

Principal or teacher's name and address 



1. MATERIAL EQUIPMENT. 

a. Building. 

(1) Material (frame, brick, or stone) 

(2) Number of rooms ; if 4 rooms or less, answer the following questions: 

Dimensions, 1 ,2. .,...., 3 ,4 

Square feet of window surface, 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 

Square feet of blackboard surface, 1 , 2 3 , 4 

Height of blackboard from floor, 1 ,2 ,3 ,4 

Color of walls, 1 ,2 3 4 

What decorations are there? 1 ,2 

' 3 ,4 

Desks, single or double, 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 

Desks, adjustable, 1 ,2 ,3 ,4 

(3) Lighting, from one side , from two or more sides From what 

side do pupils get light? Right* , left , both 

(4) Heating, un jacketed stove, jacketed stove, or furnace 

(5) Are seating facilities ample? 

(6) Globe, maps, and charts ; musical instrument 

(7) Cloakroom ; teacher's room 

(8) Water supply, well, filtered cistern, or unfiltered cistern 

(9) Toilets, outside or in ; sanitary or insanitary ; decently 

placed 

(10) Other outbuildings 

6. Grounds; 

(1) Size (acres) ; fenced ; liilly, rolling, or level ; good 

walks ; trees 

(2) Flower beds ; vegetable garden 

(3) Play apparatus Nation's flag 

c. Value of buildings and grounds 

2. TEACHING FORCE. 

«. Number, male ; female 

b. Qualifications (if there is more than one teacher answer here for principal only, and 

for the others use the reverse side of sheet). 

(1) Academic training (grade school, high school, normal, college, summer 

school, correspondence school) ; diploma held 

(2) Certificate held 

(3) Number of years experience ; how many different positions held 

during last five years? ; how long in present position? ; 

does he or she intend to make teaching a permanent profession? 

c. Sala3y (for this position). 

(1) One year ago, monthly ; yearly 

(2) Now, monthly. .....; yearly 

d. Number of teachers' institutes attended during the year 



a. Enumeration, male , female ; total. 

b. Enrollment , male , female ; total . . 



APPENDIX. 67 

c. Number of pupils in each grade and average attendance: 

Grade I — Enrollment, male , female ; average attendance 

II — Enrollment, male , female ; average attendance 

Ill — Enrollment, male , female ; average attendance 

IV — Enrollment, male , female ; average attendance 

V — Enrollment , male , female ; average attendance 

VI — Enrollment, male , female ; average attendance 

VII — Enrollment, male , female ; average attendance 

VIII — Enrollment, male , female ; average attendance 

d. Number of graduates last year, male , female ; number of these who 

have gone to higher schools, male , female 

e. Organizations in the school, names ; membership 

/. Average distance from home to school ; means of transportation 

4. STUDIES. 

a. Length of the year's session in days 

b. Number of recitations per teacher per day ; average length of the recitation 

period 

c. To what extent are the following studies taught? 

(1) Nature study (4) Manual training 

(2) Elementary agriculture (5) Music 

(3) Domestic science (6) Drawing 

5. LIBRARY. 

a. Number of volumes ; total value 

b. Amount spent this year 

c. Is the selection one advocated by the State board of education? ; if not, what 

is the character of the selection? 

d. What proportion of the pupils use the books? 

6. THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTER. 

a. Number of entertainments given a year ; character of the entertainments 

; to what extent attended by the school patrons? 

b. Other purposes for which the building is used 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



a. Is the school affected by parochial or private schools?. 

b. Remarks 



Patrons' Blank. 

1. What, in your opinion, are the principal weaknesses of the country school? 

2. Do the schools need a different course of study? 

3. How may they serve the community other than as an ordinaiy day school for 
children? 

4. Do you think consolidation of schools and transportation of pupils in school 
wagons feasible? 

5. Are the schools as they now are satisfactorily progressive? 

6. What do you suggest to improve them? 

, 1912 Sign 

,Md. 



68 



EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. 



Church Blank. 

Name of Church Denomination 

Location County State. 

Filled out by Address Date. . . 



1 . N umber of preaching Sundays a month 

2. Membership — 

10 years ago 

5 years ago 

(If you can not give approximate fig- 
ures, state whether membership 
was greater or less ten and five 
years ago.) 

Now 

Male 

Female , 

Total 

3. Additions to this church during the last 

church year — 

By confession 

By letter 

Total 

4. Attendance on an average Sunday — 

Morning 

Evening • 

5. Sunday school — 

(a) Numberof months a year Sunday 

school is held 

(6) Total membership 

(c) Average attendance 

(d) Membership in — 

Cradle roll 

Primary department 

Junior department 

Intermediate department 

Senior department 

Total 

(e) Number of teachers 

Male 

Fem ale 

Total 

(/) Is there a teachers' training class? 
(g) Does the Sunday school do any 

mission or charity work? 

6. Organizations — 

Young people's 

Number ; membership 



6. 



Organizations — Continued . 
Women's 

Number ; membership 

Men's 

Number ; membership 

Others 

Number ; membership 

7. Annual expenses — 

Salary of pastor 

10 years ago 

5 years ago 

Benevolences 

Sunday school 

Other expenses 

Total 

8. Church property — 

Value 

Encumbrances 

Equipment — 

Number of rooms 

Fumitiu-e, condition 

Stove or furnace 

Grounds — 

Acres 

Fenced? 

Trees? 

Flower-beds? 

Cemetery in connection? 

Outbuildings? 

9. Is there a parsonage? 

How many rooms? 

10. The pastor — 

(a) WTiat other source of income has 

the pastor? 

(b) How many children has he?. . . 

(c) Does he carry life insurance? 

(d) How many volumes in his li- 

brary? 

(e) Does he reside in town or coun- 

try? 

(/) Within his parish? 

11. Pastor's name and address 



o 




BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION, 

(Continued from p. 2 of cover.) 

1912— Continued. 

\*No. 17. The Montessori system of education. Anna Tolman Smith. 5 eta. 
*No. 18. Teaching language through agriculture. M, A. Leiper. 5 cts. 
*No. 19, Professional distribution of college graduates. B. B. Burritt. 10 cts, 
*No. 20. Readjustment of a rural high school. H. A. Brown. 10 cts. 

No. 21. Urban and rural common-school statistics. H. Updegraff and W. R. Hood, 

No. 22, Public and private high schools. 
*No, 23, Special collections in libraries. W. D. Johnston and I. G. Mudge, 10 cts. 

No. 24. Current educational topics, No. III. 

No. 25. List of publications of the United States Bureau of Education, 1912. 

No. 26. Bibliography of child study for the years 1910-11. 

No. 27. History of public-school education in Arkansas. Stephen B. Weeks. 

No. 28. CxUtivating school grounds in Wake County, N. C. Zebulon Judd. 

No. 29. Bibliography of teaching of mathematics. D. E. Smith and C. Goldziher. 

No. 30. Latin-American universities and special schools. Edgar Ewing Brandon. 

No. 31. Educational directory, 1912. 

No. 32. Bibliography of exceptional children and their education. A. MacDonald. 

No. 33. Statistics of State universities, etc., 1912. 

1913. 

No. 1. Monthly record of current educational publications, January, 1913. 

No. 2. Training courses for rural teachers. A. C. Monahan and R. H. Wright. 

No. 3. The teaching of modern languages in the United States. C. H. Handschin. 

No. 4. Present standards of higher education. George Edwin MacLean. 

No. 5. Monthly record of current educational publications, February, 1913. 

No. 6. Agricultural instruction in high schools. C. H. Robinson and F. B. Jenks. 

No. 7. College entrance requirements. Clarence D. Kingsiey. 

No. 8, The status of rural education. A. C. Monahan. 

No. 9, Consular reports on continuation schools in Prussia. 

No. 10. Monthly record of current educational publications, March, 1913. 

No. 11. Monthly record of current educational publications, April, 1913. 

No. 12. The promotion of peace. Fannie Fern Andrews. 

No. 13. Standards for measuring efficiency of schools. G. D. Strayer. 

No. 14, Agricultural instruction in secondary schools. 

No. 15. Monthly record of current educational publications, May, 1913. 

No. 16. Bibliography of medical inspection and health supervision. 

No. 17. A trade school for girls. 

No. 18. Congress on hygiene and demography. Fletcher B. Dresslar. 

No. 19. German industrial education. Holmes Beckwith. 

No. 20. niiteracy in the United States. 

No. 21. Monthly record of current educational publications, June, 1913. 

No. 22. Bibliography of industrial, vocational, and trade education. 

No. 23. The Georgia Club. E. C. Branson. 

No. 24. Education in Germany and the United States. G. Kerscheneteiner. 

No. 25. Industrial education in Columbus, Ga. R. B. Daniel. 

No. 26. Good roads arbor day. Susan B. Sipe. 

No. 27. Prison schools. A. C. Hill. 

No. 28. Expressions on education by American statesmen and publicists. 

No. 29. Accredited secondary schools in the United States. K. C. Babcock. 

No. 30. Education in the South. 

No. 31. Special features in city school systems. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

III mil 



019 876 295 7 




HoUinger Corp. 
pH8.5 




30Z 



